Martin Hall rates remain the same

Whitman County will pay the same rate in 2010 it did in 2009 for housing its juvenile offenders at the Martin Hall detention facility in Medical Lake. Nine counties use the facility.

County commissioners signed on to the $1.9 million Martin Hall budget for 2010, with the county’s incarceration rate staying steady at $135 per bed stay.

The county has vowed to pay for 912.5 bed stays in 2010, regardless of how many county juveniles are actually sent to Martin Hall. At a cost of $135 per bed, the county will contribute $123,187.50 to the facility’s 2010 operations, the same as in 2009.

The county pays an additional $135 per day for each juvenile offender it incarcerates over the pledged amount.

Commissioner Pat O’Neill, who sits on the Martin Hall board of directors, said Monday that agencies not contracted to regularly use Martin Hall, primarily Indian tribes, will pay an increased rate of $175 per bed.

Whitman, Adams, Asotin, Douglas, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane and Stevens counties house juvenile inmates at Martin Hall. The consortium formed in 1995.

The Nez Perce, Spokane, Kalispel and Coeur d’Alene tribes also house their juvenile offenders at Martin Hall.

Martin Hall is operated by Counseling and Correctional Services, Inc., a private, not-for-profit corporation based in Butte, Mont.