Jail requests four new employees

For the second time this year, Spokane County Jail officials have asked county commissioners to add new employees.

Jail Commander Jerry Brady on Tuesday requested that commissioners allow him to hire three deputies and a clerical staff member for the booking department. The change would add more than $200,000 a year to the jail budget.

There’s often a line to get suspects booked into jail, which pulls deputies from the streets as they wait, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told the commissioners at a meeting Tuesday.

“It is a matter of manpower,” Knezovich said. “We’re to the point where we’ve streamlined as much as we can.”

Knezovich said the jail could pay for the new positions without pulling from the county’s reserves. That is, in part, because it is receiving money from the Department of Corrections that was not considered in the budget process last year.

Commissioner Phil Harris said the positions should be created to increase safety.

“We have to be very careful that inmates are not at risk and the ones who go home at night – the correction officers – aren’t at risk,” Harris said.

Commissioners Mark Richard and Todd Mielke indicated their general support for the positions but said they wanted to wait a week before voting on the proposal. Richard said he wants to hear from other departments in the justice system, such as the prosecutor’s office, which have consistently voiced concerns that they’re also understaffed.

Mielke said he wants to ensure there is enough money to pay for the changes year after year.

“The worse thing we could do is hire them and lay them off six months later,” Mielke said.

In February, Brady asked commissioners to create an extra sergeant’s position.

Brady said he made the request in response to a fight in a dormitory cell. Commissioners approved the request.