With booking restrictions still in place at the Lewis County Jail, the Centralia Police Department has recently started booking arrested suspects into the Chehalis Tribal Jail.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office initially implemented booking restrictions at the jail in 2019 due to a remodeling project, according to previous Chronicle coverage. The restrictions remained in place due to ongoing staffing issues, and were still in place as of February 2023.
Under the booking restrictions, the Lewis County Jail accepts bookings for those arrested for Class A and B felonies, domestic violence and driving under the influence (DUI).
Those arrested for Class C felonies or lesser offenses that were not domestic violence or
DUI cannot be booked into the Lewis County Jail under the current restrictions. All criminal arrests are subject to a supervisor override for booking.
“We didn’t feel that we were doing our community any great service by allowing people to stay out on the street when we should be booking them into jail, to get them where they need to be, not only for the community’s safety, but for the safety of the people we’re actually booking because maybe they’re having other issues” Centralia Police Chief Stacy Denham said during an interview on The Chronicle’s News Dump podcast on Tuesday.
After some time looking into alternatives to the Lewis County Jail, the Centralia Police Department made an agreement with the Chehalis Tribal Jail.
“They actually have a really smooth booking process. It’s actually much faster than what we can do at the sheriff’s office,” Denham said, adding that the Chehalis Tribal Jail is not beholden to the same regulations that the Lewis County Jail and other non-tribal jails are subject to.
Given that the Chehalis Tribal Jail’s booking process was smoother and cheaper for the Centralia Police Department, Denham said, “when looking at the bottom line, the best service to our community, we can actually go further on the same dollar.”
It costs the Centralia Police Department about $74 to hold a suspect overnight in the Chehalis Tribal Jail, and about $94 to hold a suspect overnight in the Lewis County Jail, according to Denham.
Chehalis Tribal Jail will be the primary booking location for the Centralia Police Department until further notice, Denham said.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office plans to ease some of the jail’s booking restrictions when its staff members who are in the academy, on family and medical leave or completing military service return, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
Like the Lewis County Jail, the Chehalis Tribal Jail publishes a jail roster online. It can be found at https://www.chehalistribe.org/departments/corrections/jail/.
To listen to Denham’s full interview on the News Dump podcast, visit chronline.com/podcasts.
