The Detention Center
Grant County Jail (county address line: Grant County Sheriff's Office and Adult Corrections Facility)
- Operated byGrant County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division
- Jail address1890 Nat Washington Way SE, Ephrata, WA 98823
- New jailA new 512-bed Grant County jail in Ephrata had its ribbon cutting on 17 June 2026 at a reported cost of $155 million, funded by a voter-approved three-tenths of one percent public safety sales tax; staff training and operational testing were still under way and people had not yet been moved in (Correctional News, 24 June 2026)
- Old jailBuilt in the 1980s and later expanded; the county's Corrections Division page describes the Chief Deputy working with the county's Central Services Director and architect on the new jail, which broke ground in 2023
- Published populationNone on the county site. WASPC's 2025 statistics give the Grant County Sheriff's Office an average daily population of 127.6 and an average length of stay of 19.8 days
- RosterLive inmate list published through the county's Corrections page
- Published policyThe county publishes the Sheriff's Office Custody Manual and a Jail Inmate Handbook covering PREA, grievances, visitation and commissary procedures
- Beds in the old jail, original cost, fundingNot found on the county website
Source: Grant County - Corrections · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✓Who is in custody
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✓What it costs taxpayers
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗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 builtOld jail: 1980s, per Correctional News; the county does not publish the year. New jail: ribbon cutting 17 June 2026
- Original costNew jail $155 million (Correctional News). Original cost of the old jail not found
- Paid for byNew jail funded by a voter-approved three-tenths of one percent public safety sales tax; the 2026 adopted budget shows a Jail Construction line of $40,780,824
- BedsNew jail 512 beds. The county publishes no bed count for the existing jail
Since then
- The 1980s jail was expanded at least once before the replacement was built
- New 512-bed facility, ground broken 2023, ribbon cut 17 June 2026
The Sheriff
Sheriff Joe Kriete
- Runs the jailYes - Grant County has no separate department of corrections, so under RCW 70.48.090(4) the Sheriff has charge of the jail, which he runs through the Corrections Division
- How the office is filledElected countywide
- Day-to-day jail managementPhillip C. Coats, Chief Deputy of Corrections - appointed to that post in 2021 under Sheriff Tom Jones and continued by Sheriff Kriete
- Corrections staffing62 employees once fully staffed (county Corrections Division page)
- OfficeGrant County Sheriff's Office and Adult Corrections Facility, 1890 Nat Washington Way SE, PO Box 37, Ephrata, WA 98823 - 509-754-2011
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Grant County - Welcome Message from Sheriff Joe Kriete · 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 and not the jail, sets bail. Court rosters here come from the Administrative Office of the Courts' county directory.
Grant County Superior Court - 35 C St NW, Ephrata
- Melissa K. Chlarson, Judge
- Anna L. Gigliotti, Judge
- Jennifer Richardson, Judge
- Tom Middleton, Commissioner
Grant County District Court - 35 C St NW, Ephrata, and the Moses Lake branch at 1525 E Wheeler Rd
- Brian D. Barlow, Judge
- Brian D. Gwinn, Judge
- Nicholas L. Wallace, Judge
- Tracey R. Poulos, Commissioner
- 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: marked no - neither a bed count nor a daily population figure appears on the county's own pages.
- prea: the Jail Inmate Handbook sets out the jail's PREA policy and reporting routes; no audit result is published.
- budget: the 2026 Adopted Budget (PDF from the Adopted Budget page) contains the Jail cost centre and the Jail Construction fund. Direct file: https://www.grantcountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15701/2026-ADOPTED-BUDGET-PDF
- fees: the Visitation and Inmate Commissary Accounts page explains that calls and video visits run through HomeWAV and that deposits can be made by phone or kiosk, but publishes no per-minute, per-visit or commissary prices.
- The county's New Jail FAQ page (/1578/FAQs-about-the-New-Jail) that search engines still index now returns a 404.
- Three commissioners elected countywide from districts to four-year staggered terms: Kevin R. Burgess (District 1), Rob Jones (District 2), Cindy Carter (District 3). Grant County has no jail district, but it does have a dedicated public safety sales tax: the new jail was funded by a voter-approved three-tenths of one percent sales tax. The 2026 adopted budget carries a Jail cost centre (115 Jail, $9,871,974) and a Jail Construction fund of $40,780,824.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Grant 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 Grant 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