opinion
february19
2015
Enhanced Operational Abilities of the County Jail
By Sheriff Jeff Dickerson
On April 26, 2014, the
Clatskanie
Police
Department
arrested James M. Bryan on felony
and warrant misdemeanor charges,
Criminal Mischief First Degree (after
he was accused of slashing the police
department’s car tires), Resisting Arrest
and Indecent Exposure.
Bryan’s threatening behavior
that day called for a SWAT team to take
him into custody.
Mr. Bryan was taken to
jail where—while in custody—he
committed additional crimes.
On December 23, 2014, the jail
transported Mr. Bryan to prison after
the court sentenced him to 18 months
for his crime. Mr. Bryan had remained
in custody throughout the eight months
between the time of his arrest and his
sentence to prison.
Alexander Ross was convicted
in the burglary spree that terrorized
south county residents for months in
2014. Ross was arrested in August 2014
and held in custody until he was sent to
prison in December. Once in custody,
the burglary spree came to a screeching
halt.
These cases highlight the
importance of having a jail in place to
hold the offenders who are the biggest
threats to our communities. When Mr.
Bryan went to jail in April 2014, it was
less than a month before the levy passed
to keep our jail in business. If the
levy had failed, Mr. Bryan would have
been released back into the community
months before he went to trial, and Mr.
Ross would have been given a citation
(instead of jail) to appear in court when
he was charged in August. These men
might not have ever made it to court if
we did not have a jail to hold them.
As many know, we still do not
have the operational ability to hold
indefinitely everyone that police officers
and sheriff’s deputies bring to the jail—
but we do have a place to bring all
offenders for the night, get them booked
on their charges and calmed down from
their current criminal episodes. And we
are also keeping about twice as many
people in custody today than we were
this time last year.
This is a good sign of things
to come, as we continue to work on
building up our operational ability to
hold more inmates.
While we do that, we continue
to use the Forced Release Matrix used
all over the state to score inmates on
their danger to the community, and to
make sure we keep the most dangerous
at any one time in custody. More good
news is that the total number of inmates
being force released since the passage of
the levy has dropped remarkably.
The first half of 2014 saw 530
inmates released from January through
June, but from July through December,
that number fell by almost 25 percent,
down to 312 inmates. Another way
of looking at it is that before the levy,
we were force-releasing more than 20
inmates per week on average. Since the
passage of the jail levy took effect, we
are down to force-releasing 12 inmates
per week on average. This represents
a significant increase in the amount of
inmates we can hold longer, and the
number of serious offenders who can be
held until trial.
In fact, as of this writing, there
are: six accused of Rape or other sex
crimes; seven accused of Assaults
(including attempted murder); two being
held on homicide charges; five accused
of theft and burglary crimes; and four
held on Methamphetamine charges.
Most of these would not be in custody
right now if not for the viability of the
Columbia County Jail.
When the voters sacrificed to
keep their jail open, they put the welfare
of the community at a premium. I know
it was a difficult choice to make—and
that it was a close vote. But the benefits
are measurable, and, as we continue to
hire more staff and upgrade our tools
to handle more inmates, I expect to see
even better results with more operational
capacity for our jail as we go through
2015.
3
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Chip Bubl
Tom Coughlin
Sheriff Jeff Dickerson
Tobie Finzel
Karen Kain
Karen Miller
Shannon Romtvedt
Quentin Skanes
Chief Dean Smith
Grant Williams
Melissa Zavales
Photography
Scott Laird
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