The Detention Center
Columbia County Jail
- Operated byColumbia County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- Jail address901 Port Avenue, St. Helens, OR 97051 — 503-366-4630
- Size258 beds; the county's jail page says the jail averages 180 people a day
- Funded capacity and daily populationThe county's own 2023 Annual PREA Report gives a funded capacity of 180 and an average daily population of 142, on 1,935 bookings
- Courts it servesColumbia County Circuit Court, Columbia County Justice Court, St. Helens Municipal Court and Scappoose Municipal Court
- Contracted servicesMedTrust (medical and mental health), Trinity Food Services, Securus (phones), Keefe (commissary), Columbia County Mental Health
- Federal prisonersThe county says it holds U.S. Marshals Service prisoners under ORS 169.530 and that this generates about $1.6 million a year
Source: Columbia County Sheriff's Office — Columbia County Jail · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
6/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✓PREA audits
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✓Who else it holds, and for how much
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2000 — the Sheriff's Office says the detention facility was built in 2000
- Original costNot found — checked the Columbia County Jail page, the Jail Funding page and the Finance Department's budget archive
- Paid for byOperations are paid for from the county General Fund, a voter-approved jail operating levy (passed 2013/2014, renewed May 2020), and about $1.6 million a year from housing U.S. Marshals Service prisoners; the county says the federal government reimburses it at $80 per night per prisoner against an added cost of about $9 per night
- Beds258 beds; funded capacity 180
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Brian Pixley
- Runs the jailYes — the Sheriff's Office operates the Columbia County Jail through its Corrections Division
- How the office is filledElected countywide; elected November 2018 and sworn in January 1, 2019 as the 33rd Sheriff of Columbia County
- BackgroundBegan as a corrections deputy at the Sheriff's Office in 2003; holds dual Patrol and Corrections certification
- Office and jail901 Port Avenue, St. Helens, OR 97051 — 503-366-4611; corrections 503-366-4630
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Oregon State Sheriffs' Association — Columbia County · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Oregon Circuit Court judges are elected in nonpartisan races and are state judicial officers, not county officials. Columbia County's judicial district has three elected judges, one of whom serves as presiding judge. The county also has a Justice Court at Vernonia whose Justice of the Peace is elected to a six-year term; the Sheriff's Office lists that court among the four courts whose prisoners the jail holds. A judge, not the sheriff, sets security amounts and release conditions.
Columbia County Circuit Court — 19th Judicial District, Columbia County Courthouse, 230 Strand St, St. Helens
- Michael T. Clarke, Presiding Judge
- Nickolas A. Brajcich, Circuit Court Judge
- Denise E. Keppinger, Circuit Court Judge
Columbia County Justice Court — 1001 Bridge St, Vernonia
- James (Jim) Gibson, Justice of the Peace — elected, term January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2030
- Diana Taylor, Justice of the Peace Pro Tempore
- Teri Powers, Justice of the Peace Pro Tempore
- The county's bond schedule
- Share of the jail population held pretrial
- Median time from booking to first appearance
Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23
The County Commissioners
They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.
- What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
- What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
- The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- This is the most financially transparent jail in the group. The Jail Funding page sets out the revenue mix, quotes ORS 169.530 in full, and publishes the federal reimbursement rate of $80 per night per prisoner against an incremental cost of about $9 per night (https://sheriff.columbiacountyor.gov/departments/Corrections/JailFunding).
- roster: the Inmate Census page embeds a live listing served from https://www.co.columbia.or.us/sheriff/inmates/ICURRENT.HTM, showing booking date, charge, bail amount and scheduled release date, with a running count — 129 people on the day it was read. A large share of the entries are marked 'USM HOLD'.
- prea: the county publishes a 2023 Annual PREA Report (PDF) giving bookings, average daily population, funded capacity, the number of allegations, the findings for each, and a closing statement. It is the jail's own annual report rather than a certified PREA auditor's report — no auditor's report was found.
- capacity: the jail page gives 258 beds and an average of 180 a day; the 2023 PREA report gives a funded capacity of 180 and an average daily population of 142. Both numbers are the county's own.
- bond_info: no page explains how to post bail. The Inmate Services page mentions in one line that money for bail or commissary can be deposited through Access Corrections, and the live roster shows each person's bail figure, but there is no guidance on procedure, forms of payment or refunds.
- fees: Securus is named for phones and Access Corrections for commissary and deposits, with customer service numbers, but no per-minute or per-item rate is published. Inmate housing fees are mentioned with a phone number but no amount.
- deaths: no death-in-custody notice or report found on the Sheriff's Office or county site.
- state_inspection: Oregon has no state jail inspectorate. The Oregon State Sheriffs' Association publishes its voluntary OSSA Jail Standards and states that every Oregon sheriff has agreed to them and that each county jail is inspected on a bi-annual basis, but OSSA publishes the standards document only — no per-jail inspection result for this county was published on oregonsheriffs.org or on the county's own site (https://oregonsheriffs.org/jail-standards/).
- Columbia County is governed by a three-member Board of County Commissioners, elected countywide in nonpartisan races to four-year terms: Casey Garrett, Margaret Magruder and Kellie Jo Smith. One commissioner serves as budget officer. The county has no jail district, but it does have a dedicated jail operating levy — first approved by voters in 2013/2014 and most recently renewed in May 2020 — and the board appoints an eight-member Jail Operating Citizens Advisory Committee (JOCAC) that reviews how the levy money is spent.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Columbia County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).
How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?
Your VOTE is POWERFUL.
The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the commissioners who pay for it.
The county clerk runs the election in Columbia County and prints the ballot the sheriff’s name is on. Links from USA.gov and vote.gov.
Names verified 2026-08-23 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered