The Detention Center
Chelan County Regional Justice Center (CCRJC)
- Operated byChelan County Regional Justice Center, a county department under the Board of County Commissioners
- Who runs itChris Sharp — Director, Chelan County Regional Justice Center, appointed by the The Chelan County Board of County Commissioners — the Regional Justice Center is a county department listed alongside, not inside, the Sheriff's Office, and the county's jail FAQ says the jail is owned and operated by the Board of County Commissioners.
- Jail address401 Washington Street, Level 2, Wenatchee, WA 98801 — 509-667-6462
- Built1984 (county jail FAQ)
- Published capacity267 adult beds
- Published populationAverage daily population 140; 3,924 bookings in 2025, up 25 percent over 2024
- Annual budget$13.7 million (county jail FAQ)
- Staff71 full-time employees, including a seven-person medical team providing 24-hour nursing since 2023
- Who it holdsChelan County plus contracts with Douglas County and the cities of East Wenatchee, Wenatchee, Cashmere, Entiat, Leavenworth and Chelan
- City of Wenatchee contract, with ratesAn interlocal agreement running Jan. 1, 2025 through Dec. 31, 2027, settling litigation between the city and county: $2.5 million for 2025, $2.51 million for 2026, and $213 per inmate day in 2027 subject to a $2.2 million annual minimum. Approved by the city Aug. 13 and the Board of County Commissioners Aug. 18
- Deaths in custodySeven people died in custody between 1992 and 2026 out of 175,662 bookings — four suicides and three from pre-existing health conditions (county jail FAQ)
- Medical monitoring68 medical sensors in intake and holding cells by 2025; the county, helped by Douglas County, invested nearly $500,000 in them
- Recognition2025 Detention Facility Innovation Award from the National Institute for Jail Operations
- Original cost / funding of the 1984 buildingNot found — checked the Regional Justice Center pages, the jail FAQ, the Board of Commissioners pages and the county budget page
Source: Chelan County — Regional Justice Center · 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
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗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 built1984
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds267 (county Regional Justice Center page and jail FAQ); WASPC 2025 also reports 267 beds and an average daily population of 140
Since then
- No structural expansion published. Documented upgrades: security cameras in every cell from 2020, drug interdiction programme with body scanner, mail screener and narcotics K9 from 2022, 24-hour nursing from 2023, 68 medical sensors by 2025 at a cost of nearly $500,000, and a 2026 switch to scanned digital mail.
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike Morrison
- Runs the jailNo — the Chelan County Regional Justice Center does. The county's own jail FAQ says the jail 'is owned and operated by the Chelan County Board of County Commissioners'
- How the office is filledElected countywide
- UndersheriffDan Ozment
- Office401 Washington Street, Wenatchee, WA 98801 — 509-667-6851
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Chelan County — Sheriff's Office contacts · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Washington Superior Court judges are elected in nonpartisan countywide races, and District Court judges are elected in nonpartisan district races. Both are state judicial officers, not county officials — the county pays part of the cost but does not choose the judge. A judge, not the sheriff or the jail, sets bail. Court rosters here come from the Administrative Office of the Courts' county directory. Jail staff facilitate court appearances for Chelan and Douglas County Superior and District Courts and East Wenatchee Municipal Court, so people held at CCRJC may be produced before judges of another county's bench.
Chelan County Superior Court — 401 Washington St, Fl 5, Wenatchee
- Travis C. Brandt, Judge
- Kristin Ferrera, Judge
- Robert E. Jourdan, Judge
- Tracy Brandt, Commissioner
Chelan County District Court — 350 Orondo Ave, Fl 4, Wenatchee (also serves Cashmere and Leavenworth as municipal court)
- Allen F. Blackmon, Judge
- Jon M. Volyn, Judge
- 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
- Chelan is one of the Washington counties where the elected sheriff is not the jailer. The Regional Justice Center is a county department under the Board of County Commissioners and is run by a Director, Chris Sharp.
- deaths: the county's jail FAQ publishes a 1992–2026 count of in-custody deaths and their manner — unusually specific for a county this size.
- contracts: the August 2026 county news release publishes the actual dollar figures and the 2027 per-inmate-day rate for the City of Wenatchee agreement.
- bond_info: no county page explains how to post bail; the jail's public trifold lists bail bond agency phone numbers and says bail payments can be made at the window, which is not clear guidance.
- fees: the Phones/Commissary page links GettingOut and ConnectNetwork but publishes no rates.
- WASPC 2025 statewide jail statistics: https://www.waspc.org/annual-jail-statistics
- Three commissioners elected by district: Kevin Overbay (District 1), Shon Smith (District 2), Brad Hawkins (District 3); County Administrator Cathy Mulhall, Clerk of the Board Anabel Torres, Budget Director Nicole Thompson. The Board is also the operator of the jail. No jail district and no published dedicated jail tax.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Chelan 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 auditor runs the election in Chelan 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