SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County voters may face another ballot decision on jail improvements in the future.
County commissioners will review new research in May about the overcrowded detention facility, following voters’ 2023 rejection of a funding measure.
The Spokane County Jail was built in 1986 to house 485 people. Today, close to 600 inmates live there at any given time.
“Every time I get someone in here and I show them around, I like to point out that we’re using spaces in the jail that they weren’t originally intended for because we don’t fit,” said Lt. Aaron Anderton of Spokane County Detention Services.
The jail’s layout makes it difficult for staff to respond to medical and mental health needs. There are few spaces for addiction treatment or job counseling.
“It’s just crazy how much time and effort and space it takes to try to give everybody the medical help that they need and that not to mention the mental health help,” Anderton said. “It makes it really difficult to help anybody with their reentry.”
Since it assembled in the fall of 2025, Spokane’s Safe and Healthy Taskforce has met to discuss what changes could improve the region’s public safety.
President of Waters Meet Foundation and taskforce convener Zeke Smith says it’s a systematic issue and a new jail can’t fix it alone.
“This isn’t an effort that’s really about a jail. It’s an effort that’s about a public safety and public health system,” Smith said.
Next month, Spokane’s Safe and Healthy Task Force will present recommendations to county commissioners.
These include observations about prevention and crisis services, the judicial process, inmates’ re-entry process and detention facility infrastructure.
Commissioners have until August to decide if a public safety tax goes on the November ballot.
“We’ve got a pretty great community here who’s willing to support those kinds of efforts. But there’s definitely a ‘you got to show us that you are going to do things differently,'” Smith said.
Lt. Anderton says voters need to be able to see where their tax dollars are going if they’re going to support a measure.
“Whether it’s this year or whether it’s next year, I want to make sure we do it right,” Anderton said.
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