On a typical floor at the Spokane County Jail, the walls are chipped and the air vents filled with lint. The jail was built in 1986, but it appears decades older, because it’s in use every hour, every day. Geiger Corrections Center looks even grimmer. The ceiling is flaking off in several places, and the flooring looks like 1940s linoleum. Geiger is housed in former Army Corps of Engineers buildings, circa 1942.

On Thursday, Spokane County officials sponsored a tour of both facilities for the media. They hope to educate the public about the need to build a new detention facility to replace Geiger and eliminate jail overcrowding, because both the jail and Geiger run near the maximum 1,285-inmate capacity most of the time. It didn’t look as if officials “dumped down” the jail or Geiger in anticipation of the media tour. Entrenched grittiness and overcrowding are hard to fake.

The county has launched an ambitious plan to present voters, in November 2008, with a bond issue to pay for a new detention facility to be in place by 2013, when Geiger’s property lease expires. The county wants to build a detention facility and system that will endure for 25 years. They don’t yet have a final plan – or a price tag – but they are in full-speed-ahead mode. Last March, six county officials – including Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and county Commissioner Mark Richard – attended the weeklong Planning of New Institutions program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Part of the county’s planning process will include forecasting jail population over the next 25 years. This is a key element in getting it right. If the county underbuilds, then voters would likely be asked for more money before the 25 years is up. Overbuild, and it opens up the possibility of importing criminals to fill space or hoping the state Legislature goes through a tough-on-crime spree.

County officials want to hear from every stakeholder. That includes people who live near one of the potential sites, as well as those who have served time in the jail system – and the family members who visited them there.

The county needs to get detention facility facts and figures out to the public, early and often. The media briefing was a good start. Now, information about the proposed project – and the timetable for public comment – must be featured in a more prominent place at www.spokanesheriff.org.

Detention facilities acknowledge the darker side of community life. Citizens steal, drive drunk, deal drugs, assault and murder one another. The way we house and rehabilitate suspects and criminals says as much about community life as the parks and pools we build. The dialogue about the future of incarceration in Spokane County has begun in earnest. Join in this important conversation now.