(The Center Square) – A regional task force is weeks away from releasing recommendations that could lead to the construction of a new jail, treatment facilities and behavioral health resources in Spokane.
Those suggestions will help elected officials develop a tax proposal for the November ballot or another upcoming election. The last push to fund a new jail failed overwhelmingly in 2023, when 63% of voters across Spokane County rejected a 0.2% sales tax increase that was expected to raise $1.7 billion over 30 years.
Critics argued that the tax proposal prioritized replacing the county’s old downtown jail over expanding housing, treatment and behavioral health resources. In response, businesses, nonprofits, public safety officials and healthcare professionals launched the Safe & Healthy Spokane Task Force last September.
“The failed 2023 ballot measure was not a verdict against change; it was a signal that the community needed more, and that they wanted a roadmap.” Emilie Cameron, president of the Downtown Spokane Partnership, told The Center Square. “We’re not choosing between a jail and investing in services.”
Cameron said the point of the task force is to reject that framing and understand both are necessary.
She is one of several members who helped set up the task force and hire consultants for the work.
The group consists of about 40 members, with over 100 stakeholders weighing in across four advisory committees. The goal is to turn Spokane’s fragmented, crisis-driven system into a coordinated system of care that connects those in need with services, holds them accountable and makes the region safer.
The task force is modeled after an effort in Whatcom County, where voters rejected two tax proposals to fund a new jail before approving the third attempt in 2023.
Cameron said the recommendations will likely call for new facilities to address issues at the jail and to expand diversion and treatment services.
“We are creating the facilities we need to create the outcomes we desire,” she told The Center Square.
Chud Wendle, one of the task force members and executive director of The Hutton Settlement, said the group is a response to the fentanyl crisis. In his opinion, their recommendations should start with a new or modernized jail, followed by rehabilitative/diversion services to relieve strains on the healthcare system.
The existing downtown jail opened in 1986 with a capacity for 472 inmates. The daily population stands at around 600 today, after the county made room for more inmates, with that number fluctuating day to day. While a dashboard shows 100 beds open, that number depends on ongoing staffing availability.
“I think we’re putting inmates into inhumane conditions,” Wendle told The Center Square, noting that the current jail was designed for a model that worked in the 1980s. “Things have really changed quite a bit.”
Spokane County has grown by roughly 57% since 1986, from 354,700 residents to 558,300 in 2025.
Zeke Smith, one of the task force conveners and the president of Waters Meet Foundation, represents the other side of the issue. Previously known as Empire Health Foundation, the nonprofit’s advocacy branch donated more than $240,000 to a group that helped defeat the county’s last jail tax proposal in 2023.
Smith told The Center Square that he didn’t have time for an interview, explaining in an email that the issue is more nuanced than simply replacing the outdated jail. He says the existing facility isn’t set up to address the issues at hand, suggesting that other service types could better meet Spokane’s needs.
He denied advocating for or against the construction of a new jail in the upcoming recommendations, emphasizing the importance of examining the needs of individuals arrested over the past 24 months.
“With effective resourcing and coordination of community-based and system-based behavioral health, housing, and public safety programs, we can reduce the current burdens on our jail,” Smith told The Center Square.
“At the same time, we need to modernize our jail facilities to support the complex and real issues that face our community today,” he added. “I am hopeful the task force recommendations will align.”
The last advisory committee meetings are set for this Friday, with a final task force meeting on May 7.
Wendle said the group intends to issue its recommendations a week or two after those final meetings.
Local officials have until the beginning of August to submit a tax proposal for the November election, leaving only a few months to win over voters and avoid another rejection like in 2023.
