Thurston County's Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) heard presentations from county superior court, prosecuting attorney, and sheriff’s office on Tuesday, June 11.
In an informational session, representatives updated the board on the latest developments in their respective offices.
With five trial judges, two criminal judges, and two judges assigned to the juvenile court, Thurston County Superior Court is currently “busy” with trials and updating its forms, Judge John Skinder said.
“Right now, where we are extremely busy,” said Skinder. “The benefit that I think the county gets is with our group of judges right now, we are maximizing our ability to get as many trials here as we can.”
Skinder said the court had more cases this year than the past years, and they are looking forward to hiring someone to collect statistics on these cases.
Six Drug Court students are also due to graduate on June 12 in the courtroom.
The ceremony would be in-person and virtual.
“I think our first graduation was in 1998, we now have 858 graduates. The six people tomorrow…they will all give speeches about how their life has changed, and where they’re at, and what their future’s gonna look like,” shared Skinder.
Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has filed about 471 felony cases, with about 752 open felony cases set for trial at the superior court.
“Our average caseload right now as of this moment for felony deputies is 51 but that fluctuates,” Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim said.
“It fluctuates anywhere between say 45 and 65, give or take. The caseload for each deputy is fluctuating because cases are resolving and getting filed every day by each deputy,” Tunheim added.
Tunheim also highlighted that the office has filed 1,375 misdemeanor cases this year, and has 1,324 pending, and these average to a caseload of 330 cases per deputy.
The office is also set to launch a data dashboard from a federal grant given to it two years ago.
“We're working with an organization called Measures for Justice which is a national nonprofit organization that does this work for prosecutors across the country, and we are at a point now where we're looking at being able to open it up… I think next, the goal is next February, it will go live with limited data and a full data set will be up and running by early next fall,” added Tunheim.
Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) updated the board on its jail management strategies, including wristbands that monitor inmates' heartbeats.
Sheriff Derek Sanders emphasized that this is a preventive measure in addition to the body scanner, video visitation, and a narcotics dog which would ensure no inmate dies for health or any reasons.
With 292 inmates in the jail, TCSO is ramping up efforts such as incentivized hiring for correction deputies to cater to the rising number of inmates.
“Currently, there are 292 inmates in our jail. The big thing that we are seeing right now, unfortunately, is that we ran out of candidates on the correction side. We are hiring as fast as we can on that side— there's just a lack of interest generally speaking,” Sanders said.
Sanders also added the foreseeable purchase of Grappler police bumpers and equipping the traffic unit as more cases of fatal collisions due to driving under the influence (DUI) occur during the “90 dangerous days of summertime.”
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