'Unprovoked Attack' on Wash. Deputy Part of Attempt to Start Jail Riot

A person held in the Thurston County jail assaulted a corrections deputy Saturday and multiple other people attempted to incite a riot, Sheriff Derek Sanders said.

The incident occurred in the evening in the E dorm of the county jail, Sanders shared in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Sanders accused an unnamed person of punching the deputy in an "unprovoked attack." He said the assault happened after the deputy instructed the person, who he said is living with mental illness, to return to their bunk in a regular procedure.

"While additional deputies responded to deal with that inmate, approximately 20 additional inmates began inciting riotous behavior in the dorm," Sanders said.

Deputies detained the person accused of assault as well as another unnamed person held in the dorm. Both of them were relocated to holding cells, Sanders said.

"Ideally, all of the inmates who engaged in the inciting behavior would have been placed on lock down in cells, however, there is currently no space within the jail," Sanders said.

When reached for comment, Sanders said some people were screaming, surrounding deputies and calling them racial slurs. He said the second person to be detained was instigating "a lot of the problems."

The deputy who was punched was treated for a laceration on his face and is recovering, Sanders said.

Additional charges will be referred to the county Prosecuting Attorney's Office (PAO), Sanders said. He later clarified to The Olympian that his office is accusing the person who punched the deputy of third-degree assault.

Tara Tsehlana, a spokesperson for the PAO, told The Olympian they had not received a referral related to this incident as of Wednesday afternoon.

The remaining people in E dorm are living under lock-down conditions for the time being, Sanders said.

"Once they go into lock-down, they lose a lot of different privileges like the ability to walk freely throughout the dorm." Sanders said. "It becomes more of a permission-based system."

Sanders speaks about current jail conditions

The Thurston County jail is at 3491 Ferguson St. SW in Tumwater. The jail roster indicated there were 321 people being held in the jail Wednesday morning.

Sanders said the jail has four dorms that can house 40 to 60 people each and one maximum security unit with 120 cells. He said there are just 12 correctional deputies at a time in the whole jail.

"No matter what happens in these units, our deputies are out numbered," Sanders said.

The Sheriff's Office currently has 20 correctional deputy vacancies. Filling those will help, Sanders said, but there are still space needs to consider.

The cells in the maximum security unit can have two beds each, but Sanders said many of them hold just one person due to safety concerns. He explained that this unit holds separately people who have been accused of sex offenses or violent crimes as well as people experiencing mental illness.

Space in the maximum security unit has been limited recently, Sanders said. As a result, the E dorm, where the alleged assault occurred, has come to house a mix of people who are deemed to require medium and maximum security.

"We've just seen a much different atmosphere in there now," Sanders said.

Sanders said the jail has plenty of space in its dorms but it needs more cells. He said early plans for the jail included more cells, but they were never built.

"Ideally, we would expand onto the jail, build it how it's supposed to be built, build in the capacity and move forward," Sanders said. "I don't think anyone has the money for that."

In the absence of a long-term solution, Sanders said the county is convening a work group next month to consider a short-term solution.

"We are trying to figure out what we can do to identify cell space in the county, preferably using existing structures," Sanders said.

___________

Visit www.theolympian.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.