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Back in 1995, I had the opportunity to discuss the cost of criminal justice with chiefs and sheriffs from around the country.
Actually, they were from around the world. I was attending the FBI’s academy. That was 30 years ago, and many of the topics remain the same: costs, budgets, courts, indigent defense, recruiting — the usual stuff.
Many of the same issues — and many that are much worse — are discussed today.
One other topic of discussion among state sheriffs was the ever-compounding costs of unfunded or underfunded mandates imposed by our state Legislature.
Some were very good ideas, but they were costly to local governments.
No one in Olympia listened — they just kept piling on.
For a few years, while I was sheriff, we tracked our costs of the unfunded mandates, and I believe we even sent the state a bill. It wasn’t paid, of course, but it was a worthwhile and informative endeavor I thought.
I’m talking about medical costs of inmates, indigent defense, housing state prisoners locally, or “forever misdemeanor sentences,” which every session of the Legislature made longer and more costly.
But what we didn’t have back then was the level of crime we see today, which appears to me to have exploded in recent years.
And then there’s the broken promises of elected officials with “solutions” that almost never (actually, I believe never) made things better, just more expensive and often more difficult to deal with.
The result was even more costly. The explosion of mental health issues alone has created problems, and we know it has nothing to do with legalizing or smoking very potent marijuana — or does it?
Perhaps my biggest disappointment these days is seeing that jail we finished and opened just before my retirement, which was intended to resolve jail booking restrictions.
It apparently no longer does.
I’m not certain why it is restricted now, but it is disappointing that what I thought would solve that problem hasn’t. Now I see Chehalis and Centralia are using the Chehalis Tribal Jail because of the booking restrictions. It’s more reliable.
One of the things that would have helped local jails out, and actually make Olympia pay attention to things they did, was if the Washington State Patrol had to pay to use it, too. No, only local partners do.
As one legislator told me back when I used to testify about the impacts of their decisions, did I have any idea what that would cost the state?
As a matter of fact, I did.
I haven’t paid much attention since I retired, but I’d bet they still don’t pay to use county jails. They certainly should. That would include the costs of medical, indigent defense and all the other costs incurred by the local government.
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I can’t say if I ever met the former Morton Police chief Roger Morningstar or not, but his case was one that baffled me. Deliberate failures to live up to even a weak oath of office baffle me.
But how did he get past a preemployment polygraph and background check in the first place?
In my opinion, to misuse a city credit card for cleaning supplies and vitamins shows a serious lack of judgement, even though the amount of money isn’t alleged to be much.
Plus, failure to investigate internal sexual harassment allegations shows a dangerous indifference. More bad judgement.
Perhaps a proper preemployment background investigation was done and he passed, but the fact that he failed a polygraph on parts of his original application suggests otherwise.
It’s a fact that the pool of qualified candidates is shrinking and that corners are being cut in some places to fill positions.
It hasn’t helped that officials have badmouthed cops, scapegoating them for some time now. If politicians defund, demonize and fail to protect their officers when they should, it’s foolish to believe the candidate pool will improve.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.
