Sheriff posting jail roster on the Internet

For the first time in Spokane County, the public can electronically access information about who’s in jail, why they were put there and when the inmate will be released.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office went live online with its jail roster on Thursday afternoon.

All inmates who have been booked into Spokane County Jail and Geiger Corrections Center, including those who are on electronic home monitoring, are listed alphabetically on the site, officials said.

“We are really excited about this,” said Lt. Edee Hunt, who headed up the project. “We were long overdue. It’s a popular feature that many agencies have used.”

The project took about six months, Hunt said.

The Web site is being updated about four times a day, Hunt said. So if a person is booked Thursday morning, the information should be accessible via Internet by that afternoon or sooner.

Inmates are listed under three categories on the Sheriff’s Office Web site under the jail heading: “all inmates”; “new bookings only,” which includes all those booked within the previous 48 hours; and “new releases,” which lists all inmates who have been released within the previous two days, including the time they got out of jail.

By clicking on an inmate’s name, a person can find out age, gender, race, criminal charge and a bail amount, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Dave Reagan.

A link that explains the law tied to the criminal charge is also included, along with a reference number to Washington’s Criminal Code.

“Hopefully this will mean less phone calls,” Hunt said. If Sheriff’s Office employees aren’t busy answering phone calls about basic jail information, then “we can make better use of our resources.”

Hunt will work to improve the site as she receives feedback from the community and others who use it. In the future, the Web site may also include court dates for the inmates.

This is a good public service, said Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who championed making the jail rosters electronically available.

The push to make this happen is also another step to being open and transparent, he said.