Outsourcing Tacoma's Jail Services to Fife

A couple items passed at last week’s City Council meeting will shift a portion of Tacoma’s jail and corrections services to Fife. The City of Tacoma had been contracting with the Pierce County jail in Tacoma for jail services, and with private companies for electronic home monitoring services. The shift to using Fife for both of those services came out of a search for savings on Tacoma’s jail costs.

The City of Fife operates a 52 bed jail in the City of Fife, and has additional capacity through contracts with other jails. According to TPD’s review, using Fife for jail services while retaining the option of using the County on a non-exclusive basis would result in savings of approximately 30% for Tacoma.

The Tacoma Municipal Court has used Electronic Home Monitoring from private vendors as an alternative to incarceration for misdemeanor offenders who are willing and able to pay for the services. The City of Fife has an EHM program, in which it is willing to include Tacoma offenders. Expanding the EHM Program by authorizing Tacoma’s Municipal Court Judges to place defendants on the program at the City’s expense is expected to increase the number of defendants on the EHM Program in lieu of incarceration, and therefore reduce jail costs for the City.

Under the Fife EHM system, offenders are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by professional civil service correction officers, and in the event of a violation, offenders are contacted and notified of the violation by a Fife corrections officer Through the EHM device communications link, usually within 10 minutes of the violation.

According to The News Tribune, these changes will contribute to the closure of an 84 bed unit within the Pierce County Jail facility.

The changes will save Tacoma a significant chunk of money, which is a good thing for the bottom line. Are there any potential unintended consequences that could make this less of a good thing?