County signs on with Martin Hall

Just as board chairman Scott Hutsell predicted, Martin Hall’s numbers increased to 24 for November, up from 22 in October.

“I hope that is a trend that continues,” said Hutsell, who is also a Lincoln County Commissioner.

“We are serving a few more tribal youth in the last couple of months which is a good thing,” he said in an email to the Gazette late last week.

Although Whitman County is well below its 912 budgeted number of juvenile offenders at 240 so far this year, other counties and Native American tribes who utilize the facility are seeing increased numbers.

“We’re still trying to promote the facility to some other outside users but that takes some time,” Hutsell said.

“We are going to see how December comes out. If the numbers are up, we are counting on that continuing. If they are level or go down, our January meeting will be very interesting. Never a dull moment with Martin Hall.”

Whitman County commissioners on Monday morning approved an agreement to again send juveniles to the Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Facility in Medical Lake.

The member counties besides Whitman County include Adams, Asotin, Douglas, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane and Stevens.

All member counties will put their juveniles in the facility with the exception of Spokane County. That county may, but is not obligated to, place juveniles in the facility in 2014, just as in 2013. Spokane County opted out of the agreement last year, but has placed overload juveniles in the facility. If Spokane County places juveniles in Martin Hall, the cost is $155 per day.

In 2014, each member will pay $155 per bed day for the beds in the facility each member actually uses.

In the event the cash balance in bank accounts of the operating fund drop below $350,000 for two consecutive months, the board will provide the facility’s staff a 90-day notice of termination and execute the plan to remove the facility from active operation and provide for its maintenance and protection.

Whitman County had no juveniles at Martin Hall in July and only had one in August.

Stevens County has the most beds used with 1,588 beds so far this year, followed by Douglas County with 1,059 beds. Asotin County had 783 beds, Adams County had 628 beds used, Ferry County had 349 beds, followed by Whitman County, then Pend Oreille County with 141 beds and Lincoln County with 139 beds used so far this year.

The Yakama Tribe had 1,120 beds used, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe had 696 beds and the Spokane Tribe had 665 beds used.

County members pay $155 a bed per day and tribes pay $185 per bed per day.

It was uncertain if Martin Hall would remain open late last year when Spokane County pulled out of the group of counties in the program.

In the meantime, the eight counties still in the group agreed to adopt a “pay-as-you-go” policy, not committing to a strict payment for the hall’s use, but only paying for the number of beds each county uses.

Since 1996, each county paid for a set number of bed-days per year. Whitman County averaged 2.5 beds per day, 912.5 beds per year, paying $141,437.

Hutsell said that the hall’s expenses run an average of $150,000 to $155,000 per month and that it takes an average of 28 juvenile offenders per day to be in the hall for it to break even.

Martin Hall can hold up to 42 juveniles with one offender per cell. If necessary, 30 cells can be double-bunked.