Sheriff Rob Snaza talks to commissioners during a public meeting Tuesday afternoon at the Historic Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis.
Sheriff Robert Snaza addressed questions on using jail inmates during public cleanups Tuesday, telling the Lewis County Board of Commissioners that the sheriff’s office currently lacks the personnel to operate an in-house litter crew.
During the opening portions of Tuesday’s monthly meeting between the commission and sheriff’s office command staff, Snaza acknowledged instances where detainees may hook up with a county agency or private entity to spruce up local park areas, but the same couldn’t be said about his law enforcement team.
“Right now, as much as I would like to have a sheriff’s office vehicle out there along the highway with inmates picking up, we simply do not have the staffing for that. It’s just challenging,” he said.
One of the challenges, added Snaza, lies in identifying the individuals who can be trusted to carry out a task outside of a jail facility.
Corrections Chief Chris Sweet seconded Snaza’s claims by affirming that currently, the Sheriff’s Office has three or four prisoners who perform county-supervised clean-ups at the Fairgrounds and other public sites, but stated that each of those individuals are required to undergo extensive “measures” before they’re assigned.
“It’s a huge undertaking for us to figure out if we actually have enough inmates to support that,” said Sweet.
County Commissioner Bobby Jackson lauded a number of volunteer groups that frequently partake in outdoor clean-ups and singled out Karla Logan Mitchell— daughter of former Lewis County Sheriff Bill Logan— as one individual who is particularly engaged in those kinds of community endeavors.
“They are constantly going places,” offered Jackson. “She’s talked about going into some homeless camps — if they can.”
