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>From The (Portland) Oregonian
September 12 2006

The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office spends far more money on jail
beds, health care and incarcerating state and federal prisoners than
its counterparts around the Northwest, according to the preliminary
findings of a district attorney's investigation.

Those conclusions are part of a status report District Attorney Michael
Schrunk sent to the County Board of Commissioners on Monday that said:
Multnomah County spends $158 per day for each occupied jail bed,
compared to King County in Seattle, which spends $117; Clark County,
which spends $62; and Washington County, which spends $90.
The report cites reasons including a high staff-to-inmate ratio, 3-1
compared to 4-1, "inordinately high use of sick time, comp time and
overtime," and the closures of cheaper jail facilities.

The county's health care costs are 40 percent to 50 percent higher per
inmate than in other communities with accredited health care programs
in jails. The figure is the highest of those sites in Oregon,
Washington and Idaho, although King County's spending was comparable.

The county loses approximately $8 million a year housing state and
federal prisoners because reimbursement rates are far lower than actual
costs.
"Multnomah County taxpayers, in effect, subsidize those other
jurisdictions for housing prisoners here," the memo says.

That prompted county Commissioner Lonnie Roberts on Monday to call for
the county to opt out of the program to house state prisoners -- which
costs the county $6 million annually according to the report -- and use
the money to open the 525-bed Wapato Jail. State law says the county
can decline to house state prisoners if the state does not provide
enough money to do the job.

The district attorney's investigation, which the commissioners
requested in June, is being conducted in conjunction with an annual
corrections grand jury investigation. So far the group has heard
testimony from more than 79 witnesses and toured jails both inside and
outside the county.

Schrunk said he took the unusual step of releasing some information now
"because of all the paranoia out there."

"I thought it would be better to tell everyone what we're looking at. I
don't want to blindside the corrections health people, the sheriff's
people and create a firestorm," he said. "These numbers are startling,
but there may be a perfectly logical explanation for them."

Sheriff Bernie Giusto, who appeared before the grand jury for more than
two hours Monday, contested the preliminary findings, questioning both
the methodology that produced the numbers and some of its conclusions.

Overtime questions

The memo indicated that the sheriff's reliance on overtime will again
draw a close and critical look. The district attorney points to a
particularly insidious -- though potentially unrelated -- side effect
of overtime.

The memo cites the 2005 murder of Dennis J. Saban. It says that the
deputy who made the decision that moved inmate Tommy Gordon from a
segregation cell, in which he was separated from other prisoners, to
the shared cell where he murdered his bunk mate, had worked more than
1,600 hours of overtime the last two years. Even after the death, the
deputy was allowed to work more than 900 hours of overtime, 43 percent
more than his normal hours and the highest of anyone in the department.


"This raises serious concerns about the effect that excessive overtime
usage might have on staff effectiveness and jail operations," the memo
said.

Giusto said Monday that the deputy followed department procedure and
blamed a shortage of jail beds for the problem.

Positive notes

The memo says the incidents are probably isolated and that the county's
jails are run securely.
"On the whole, in the areas of prisoner treatment and jail order,
Multnomah County facilities compare favorably with all the other jails
we visited," the report says.

County Commissioner Lisa Naito, who pushed for the investigation after
several high-profile jail security lapses, called the report "quite
shocking" and said she hoped the district attorney would include
recommendations in his final report.

Schrunk said he hopes to have a final report by the end of October.