By Andy Porter
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — Walla Walla County commissioners voted unanimously today to split the County Jail from the Sheriff’s Office and create a new county corrections department.
Commissioners also voted to appoint Mike Bates, Court Services Department director, as the jail’s interim director.
The vote by Commissioners Perry Dozier, Jim Johnson and Jim Duncan capped a monthslong debate that began in March when Dozier raised the issue after the dismissal of former Chief Corrections Deputy Keilen Harmon.
At Monday’s meeting, Dozier presented a report to fellow commissioners on his research into creation of the new department. In his report, Dozier made no recommendation, but reiterated the need to resolve the “dual leadership” issue with the jail, which puts operational control of the facility with the sheriff while leaving commissioners responsible for finances.
Those budgetary issues “are a major concern,” Dozier said, including what to do in the future with the 30-year old facility that was originally designed to house 45 inmates but now usually holds twice that number or more.
Dozier said that Sheriff John Turner, who made no comments at Monday’s meeting, was “doing a great job on the patrol side” of the Sheriff’s Office, but that commissioners “have some huge decisions” to make about the jail and will need full control over its finances and operation.
In his comments, Johnson said that he still had many questions concerning creation of the new department, but though commissioners may not be experts in corrections or other fields, they do have the ability to hire people who do have that expertise and will answer to the board.
“It’s the nature of this job that we are a jack of all trades and a master of none,” he said.
Duncan said that he viewed the jail operations and its staff as already a separate operation from the Sheriff’s Office and that it has been that way for some time. State law decrees that “by default” it falls under the control of the sheriff.
Bates, who works under Walla Walla County Superior Court Judges John Lohrmann and Scott Wolfram to manage the county’s juvenile justice facility, said he had conferred with the judges about the interim appointment.
“I’m willing to serve on an interim basis,” he said, adding that the judges would OK that arrangement.