The city of Kent has paid $25,445 to Chelan County for jail services so far this year to house 12 inmates after the city jail reached capacity.

The Kent City Council agreed on Oct. 21 to extend a contract with Chelan County into 2015 to house inmates from Kent. The city has contracted with the county since 2011 as a way to handle more inmates without paying for costs to expand the city jail.

The city jail opened in 1986 and houses misdemeanor offenders sentenced to less than one year. That includes offenses such as drunk driving, domestic violence, minor assaults and petty theft.

Kent sent only four inmates in 2013 to the Chelan County Regional Justice Center in Wenatchee at a cost of $2,590, according to Kent Assistant Police Chief Rafael Padilla.

Chelan County charges Kent $70 per night. That compares to a cost of about $100 per night at the city jail along South Central Avenue, according to city documents.

“It is important to note that there are several variables that impact the cost to house an inmate in Chelan,” Padilla said about the higher costs so far in 2014. “They include length of stay and whether or not the inmate requires medical attention.”

Inmates shall receive medical, psychiatric and dental treatment when emergent and necessary to safeguard their health, according to the agreement. The city covers those costs beyond the $70 per night rate. Examples of medical services include AIDS/HIV treatment, chemotherapy, dialysis treatment and hemophiliac treatment.

Chelan County covers the transportation costs to take inmates to Wenatchee and return them to Kent.

The average daily inmate count this year in the Kent jail is 135, which includes those on work release or other programs. About 90 are incarcerated each day.

The jail population hit a high of 158 in July of this year and a high of 147 in November 2013.

Jail staff decides when it’s necessary to send inmates to Wenatchee.

“It is based on population,” Padilla said. “We carefully monitor jail population and when it reaches a level that approaches being unmanageable, we send inmates to Chelan.”

Padilla said jail staff follows a procedure to determine which inmates to send away.

“It’s primarily based on length of stay,” Padilla said. “All of the inmates we send to Chelan have been sentenced and most have a relatively short amount of time left on their sentence. This helps us keep our costs down because we can predict/control how long we will need to pay for a bed in Chelan.”

Padilla said using the Chelan County jail as a backup helps conditions at the city jail

“We work hard to ensure that we are operating a jail facility that ensures public safety while at the same time is as cost effective as possible,” he said.