The Detention Center
Umatilla County Corrections Facility, also called the Umatilla County Jail (UCJ) by the county
- Operated byUmatilla County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- Jail address4700 NW Pioneer Place, Pendleton, OR 97801 - 541-966-3632. Public hours Monday to Friday 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., closing at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesdays
- Throughput and population'In 2024, UCJ processed over 3700 intakes into the facility, and had an average daily population of 175 adults in custody' - the county's own words
- Staffing38 full-time corrections deputies, five civilian support staff, three corrections sergeants and one lieutenant, working 12-hour shifts around the clock, plus contracted medical, mental health and addiction treatment professionals. Corrections deputies must be DPSST-certified and keep 40 hours of training a year
- Accreditation'In December 2024, the Umatilla County Jail was awarded with the Certification of Accreditation from the Oregon State Sheriff's Association' - the county's own Corrections Facility page
- Services inside24-hour medical, mental health medication and counselling, addiction treatment services and education programmes
- Who else it holdsThe county's adopted FY2026-27 budget carries named detention-fee revenue lines: Morrow Co Detention Fees $500,000, CTUIR Detention Fees $219,000, and standing lines for Union Co Detention Fees and Wallowa Co Detention Fees. Morrow County states its side of the arrangement as 600 rented beds a month, 20 per day
- What the jail costsThe Jail division, 15400, is budgeted at $12,631,405 for FY2026-27 with 40.750 FTE, against $9,744,332 the year before - an 18.73 per cent rise in the personnel-and-operations figure the county publishes. The whole Sheriff's Office comes to $22,757,030 across 105.61 FTE
- Jail bondThe county carries a separate Debt Service - Jail bond fund, 90950. In FY2026-27 it holds only a residual balance of about $95,000, all of it transferring to the General Fund, with no debt payments budgeted - the jail's construction debt has run its course
- Communications vendorViapath Technologies. Only people in custody can start a call; families may leave a voicemail of up to three minutes 'for about $1.25 (may vary slightly)'. Tablets are in every dorm for messages, pictures, music, films, books and training resources
- What was triedThe Sheriff's Office, County Jail, Phone Calls, Visitation, Board of Commissioners, Finance and contact pages were read and the adopted FY2026-27 budget PDF was searched. No rated bed capacity, construction date, construction cost, bail-posting guidance, PREA result or death-in-custody record is published on the county's site
Source: Umatilla County Corrections Facility · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
5/10Partial- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✓Independent inspection
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗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 builtNot found. The county calls the jail 'a state-of-the-art adult correctional facility' but publishes no construction date
- Original costNot found. The existence of a Debt Service - Jail bond fund in the county budget shows the jail was bond-financed, but no principal amount or issue date is published
- Paid for byCounty general funds plus detention fees from other jurisdictions. The Jail division is budgeted at $12,631,405 for FY2026-27 with 40.750 FTE. Its published revenue lines include Morrow Co Detention Fees $500,000, CTUIR Detention Fees $219,000, transport fees $150,000, a $66,000 transfer from the Corrections Assessment fund and $24,000 of commissary wage reimbursement. The Debt Service - Jail bond fund now holds only a residual balance being transferred out to the General Fund
- BedsNot found as a rated capacity. The county publishes an average daily population of 175 adults in custody for 2024 and over 3,700 intakes that year
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Terry L. Rowan
- Runs the jailYes - 'Our Corrections Division maintains a safe and secure jail facility and provides security at our two county courthouses', the Sheriff's own words on the county's site
- How the office is filledElected. ORS 204.005 requires Oregon sheriffs to be elected to four-year terms
- Jail commanderCaptain Kenny Franks, appointed by and reporting to the Sheriff. He began as a Pendleton Police reserve officer in 1995, joined the Umatilla County Sheriff's Office as a reserve in 2004, became a full-time corrections deputy in 2007, sergeant in 2014, lieutenant and jail operations manager in 2019, and captain and jail commander in 2022
- Accreditation of the office'The Umatilla County Sheriff's Office is accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Alliance' - the county publishes the certificate itself
- What else the office doesContracted police services to the cities of Athena and Weston, a school resource officer to the Milton-Freewater School District, a K-9 programme, 911 dispatch, civil process, emergency management, marine and mountain patrols, and participation in the Umatilla/Morrow Major Crimes Team
- OfficeUmatilla County Sheriff's Office, sheriff@umatillacounty.gov. County courthouse at 216 SE 4th Street, Pendleton
- How this was verifiedSigned 'Terry L. Rowan, Sheriff' on the county's own Sheriff's Office page, which also carries his message to citizens
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Umatilla County Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Oregon Circuit Court judges are elected in nonpartisan races to six-year terms and are state judicial officers, not county officials. A judge, not the sheriff, sets security amounts and release conditions; the sheriff's office only receives the money and releases the person. Justices of the Peace are the hybrid: a JP is both a state-authorised court judge and a county elected official, elected to a six-year term, with the county paying for the court. ORS 169.320 makes the sheriff the keeper of the county jail; the sheriff may appoint a keeper but remains responsible. The Oregon Judicial Department states it plainly for this district: 'The Judges of the Sixth District Circuit Court are elected or appointed in both Umatilla and Morrow Counties, and thus serve in both circuit courts.' Umatilla is the larger of the two and holds courtrooms in both Pendleton and Hermiston, and the Sheriff's Office provides security at two county courthouses. The bench runs a formal division of labour - a chief criminal judge, a chief civil and family law judge, and an aid-and-assist docket - which is unusual for a rural district and reflects the volume passing through a jail that took over 3,700 intakes in 2024. No Justice Court is published for Umatilla County.
Circuit Court - 6th Judicial District (Umatilla and Morrow counties)
- Eva J. Temple - Presiding Judge of the Sixth Judicial District, Courtroom 4, Hermiston; Chief Civil and Family Law judge for both counties and Chief Juvenile Administrative judge for Umatilla County
- Daniel J. Hill - position 3, Courtroom 5, Hermiston; Chief Criminal Judge for Umatilla and Morrow
- Jon Lieuallen - position 2, Courtroom 3, Pendleton; criminal caseload
- Robert W. Collins - position 1, Courtroom 2, Pendleton; primary juvenile delinquency judge
- John L. Ballard - position 5, Courtroom 1, Pendleton; traffic, small claims and evictions
Still needed
- 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
- capacity: recorded 'yes' on the published 2024 average daily population of 175 and over 3,700 intakes. Umatilla does not publish a rated bed capacity, which is the half of this check it fails; the population half it passes.
- roster: the Jail Roster is linked prominently from the county's own front page and Sheriff's Office page, but it is hosted by a vendor at ucso.citizenrims.com rather than on the county domain.
- inspections: recorded 'yes'. The county publishes on its own Corrections Facility page that the jail was awarded the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association Certification of Accreditation in December 2024. The Sheriff's Office as a whole is separately accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Alliance, and the county publishes the certificate image. Neither the audit report nor the score is published.
- contracts: recorded 'no' under the terms of the check. Umatilla is the most forthcoming county in this group about the money - its adopted budget names Morrow County, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Union County and Wallowa County as detention-fee counterparties and gives dollar figures for each - but it publishes no agreement and no per-day rate, which is what the check asks for. The prior-year actuals on the Morrow line, $583,186 and $921,583, are worth recording because they are almost double the budgeted figure.
- The same budget carries a Prof Svc - Sanction Rental Beds line and matching Sanction Rental Beds revenue of $337,625 in prior years, which is Umatilla buying and selling sanction beds for community corrections rather than pretrial custody.
- bond_info: recorded 'no'. There is no bail page. The Corrections Facility page covers phone calls, visitation, mail and programmes but not how to post bail.
- fees: recorded 'no'. The one price the county does publish is about $1.25 for a voicemail of up to three minutes through Viapath. No per-minute call rate, video visit rate or commissary price list is published, and the phone page directs families to Viapath at 1-866-516-0115 or pay.telmate.com for everything else.
- deaths and prea: nothing published by the county on either.
- budget: the Finance department publishes adopted budgets back to 2015-16, proposed and approved budget books for FY2027, LB50 reports, budget committee notices and external audits back to 2017-18.
- state_inspection: Oregon has no state jail inspectorate. The nearest thing is the Oregon State Sheriffs' Association jail standards and accreditation programme, and Umatilla is one of the few counties in this group to publish that it holds the OSSA Certification of Accreditation.
- Umatilla County is a home-rule county with a Charter, governed by a three-member Board of County Commissioners. The members are Chair Dan Dorran, Vice-Chair John Shafer and Commissioner Cindy Timmons. The Board's stated aim is 'to allocate resources in a transparent manner'. Its executive secretary is Kelsey Bailey and the county publishes a general address for questions to the commissioners. The Board adopts the budget that carries the Jail as division 15400 and that records, line by line, what other jurisdictions pay Umatilla to hold their prisoners - which makes this Board's budget the single most informative jail-money document in this group.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Umatilla 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 sheriff is on your ballot
The county clerk runs the election in Umatilla 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