county jail Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Coronavirus Cases Rise Sharply In Yakima County Jail

By NWPB News July 14, 2020

The Yakima County Jail is facing a rising COVID-19 case count as of July 2020. CREDIT: Google Maps

The first person in the Yakima County jail tested positive for coronavirus in May — an inmate who transferred to the Yakima County jail from the city jail in Sunnyside, 35 miles southeast of Yakima. On July 6, the jail reported that 83 inmates had caught the virus, and this number continues to grow.Read More

The Coronavirus Crisis Struck, And Washington Jails Emptied Out

By Austin Jenkins April 26, 2020

File photo. Washington jails. CREDIT: Austin Jenkins/N3

In a dramatic example of COVID-19’s impact on the criminal justice system, the number of people in Washington jails has plummeted in recent weeks, ending virtually overnight an overcrowding problem that plagued many facilities for years. Today, a few of the state’s smallest jails are reporting inmate populations in the single digits.Read More

Booked And Buried: Jail Suicide Epidemic Doesn’t Extend To Northwest Prisons

By Conrad Wilson November 6, 2019

A barbed wire fence encloses the Columbia County Jail yard in St. Helens, Ore., Saturday, March 30, 2019. CREDIT: Bradley Parks/OPB

Between 2008 and 2018, suicide accounted for 47% of jail deaths with a known cause in Oregon and Washington, according to an investigation by OPB, KUOW and the Northwest News Network. But an analysis shows the region’s prisons aren’t plagued by the same crisis.Read More

Booked And Buried: Aging Northwest Jails Endanger Lives, But Replacing Them Is Controversial

By Austin Jenkins October 17, 2019

Jailhouse graffiti is common in the Mason County Jail which opened in 1985. CREDIT: Austin Jenkins/N3

Between 2008 and 2018, more than 300 people died after being taken to a county jail in Washington or Oregon, according to an investigation earlier this year by OPB, KUOW and the Northwest News Network. Nearly half died by suicide.Read More

Report Says Locking Up Mentally Ill, Drug-Addicted People Results In Jail Deaths

By Austin Jenkins May 21, 2019

Jail cell in Cowlitz County, Washington. CREDIT: AUSTIN JENKINS/N3

The practice of locking up people who are chronically sick, mentally ill or drug addicted in under-resourced city, county and regional jails in Washington is resulting in inmate deaths and a failure to “treat all people humanely, respectfully, and safely,” according to a new report by the statewide nonprofit law firm Columbia Legal Services.Read More

Booked And Buried: After Dehydration Death, Grieving Father And Jail Chief Form Surprising Bond

By Austin Jenkins April 17, 2019

Fred Farris, the father of Keaton Farris, and Island County Jail Chief Jose Briones pose together on the Coupeville Wharf. CREDIT: AUSTIN JENKINS/N3

Four years ago this month, Keaton Farris died naked, dehydrated and malnourished on the floor of an isolation cell in the Island County Jail on Whidbey Island. Farris, who was bipolar and in the throes of a mental health crisis, had been arrested 18 days earlier for failing to appear in court for allegedly stealing and cashing a $355 check. An investigation later found Read More

Booked And Buried: Suicide Is The Leading Cause Of Death In Northwest Jails

By Conrad Wilson April 4, 2019

A molded-plastic bunk in a maximum security cell at the Clark County Jail in Vancouver, Washington, on March 14, 2019. The molded-form of the bunk makes it impossible to tie things like bedsheets to the bunk. CREDIT: Bryan M. Vance/OPB

Over the past decade, at least 122 people have died by suicide in county jails across Oregon and Washington. Suicide, specifically hanging, is by far the leading single cause of deaths in the region’s jails. It accounts for nearly half of all cases with a known cause of death.Read More

70 Percent Of Jail Deaths In Washington And Oregon Involve People Innocent By Law

By Northwest News Network April 3, 2019

Across Oregon and Washington, at least 70 percent of the inmates who died since 2008 were awaiting trial, rather than serving time. Civil liberties advocates have long expressed concern over jailing people on low-level crimes that have root causes of mental illness, drug addiction or lack of stable employment.Read More

Booked And Buried: Northwest Jails’ Mounting Death Toll

By Northwest News Network April 2, 2019

Incomplete data tracking hides a crisis of rising death rates in overburdened Northwest jails that have been set up to fail the inmates they are tasked with keeping safe.Read More