The Detention Center
Klickitat County Jail, run by the Klickitat County Department of Corrections
- Operated byKlickitat County Department of Corrections
- Who runs itBill Frantz — Jail Administrator, Klickitat County Department of Corrections, appointed by the Board of County Commissioners — the administrator reports directly to the Board, not to the Sheriff
- Jail and department address205 S. Columbus Ave., Rm. #223, Goldendale, WA 98620 — 509-773-3666
- Who took charge, and whenThe Board of County Commissioners decided on 29 May 2024 to create a county Department of Corrections with a Jail Administrator reporting directly to the Board; the transfer resolution was voted on 3 December 2024 and took effect 4 December 2024 at 12:01 a.m.
- What preceded itOn 29 March 2024 a majority of the Board voted to close the county jail and authorise staff to negotiate contract jail services; the county then published a 44-page scenario analysis and reversed course
- Rated beds / average daily population49 rated beds, ADP 22.75 in CY2025, reported to WASPC as "Klickitat County Corrections" — WASPC, not the county
- Contract the county publishesNORCOR (Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility), 25 guaranteed beds July-June at $105 per bed per day with a 3 per cent increase in year two — set out in the county's own April 2024 jail report
- Long-standing NORCOR relationshipJuvenile detention moved to NORCOR in 2002; the Sheriff's Office contracted with NORCOR for adults with disabilities 2009-2014 and for adults from 2010
- RosterNot online — "The current inmate roster is posted in the Jail Lobby at 205 S Columbus Ave. Goldendale WA 98620"
- Year built / original cost / funding / expansionsNot found — checked the Department of Corrections page and its sub-pages, the Sheriff pages, the April 2024 Corrections/Jail Report, the 2026 Budget page and the county site map. A jail re-roofing project is listed under Public Works bids.
Source: Klickitat County — Department of Corrections · checked 2026-08-23
Transparency rating
3/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗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
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- BedsNot published by the county. WASPC records 49 rated beds against an average daily population of 22.75 in CY2025.
Since then
- Not found — a jail re-roofing project was put out to bid through Public Works
The Sheriff
Sheriff Bob Songer
- Runs the jailNo — since the Board of County Commissioners created a Klickitat County Department of Corrections, that department has charge of the jail under RCW 70.48.090(4). The Sheriff publicly opposed the transfer.
- How the office is filledElected countywide
- Office205 S. Columbus Ave., Rm. 108, Goldendale, WA 98620 — 509-773-4455
- Still responsible forPatrol, civil process, records, sex offender registration, search and rescue
Still needed
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Klickitat County — Sheriff · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Washington Superior Court judges are elected in nonpartisan countywide races and District Court judges in nonpartisan district races; municipal court judges are elected or appointed by the city. All 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 at courts.wa.gov.
Klickitat County Superior Court — 205 S. Columbus Ave, Rm 206, Goldendale
- Randall C. Krog, Judge
- Jeffrey J. Baker, Commissioner
Klickitat County District Court East — 205 S Columbus Ave, Rm 107, Goldendale
- Rick L. Hansen, Judge
Klickitat County District Court West — 501 NE Washington St, White Salmon
- Jeffrey J. Baker, Judge
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
- This county is the significant governance finding in the group. The brief lists King, Spokane and Yakima as Washington's verified appointed-director counties; Klickitat is a fourth. The Board of County Commissioners created a Klickitat County Department of Corrections whose Jail Administrator, Bill Frantz, reports directly to the Board rather than to the elected Sheriff. The department is listed on the county site under Government > Departments alongside Public Works and Public Health, separate from the Sheriff. WASPC's 2025 file reports the facility under the name "Klickitat County Corrections", not under the Sheriff's Office.
- The change is documented in local reporting: Columbia Gorge News (vote set for 3 December 2024, effective 4 December 2024, Frantz named as administrator with 25 years at the Washington State Department of Corrections) and Columbia Community Connection (Board decision of 29 May 2024 to create the department, Sheriff Songer opposed). The county's own organisational-charts page has not been updated and still lists only a Sheriff's Office chart.
- roster: marked no — the county states the roster is posted only in the jail lobby in Goldendale. This is the only county in the group with no online roster.
- contracts: marked no. The county does publish a rate — $105 per bed per day for 25 guaranteed beds at NORCOR — but that is the county buying beds in Oregon, not selling beds to another agency. Historically Sherman County, Oregon housed its adults in the Goldendale jail, but no current agreement or rate for that is published.
- inspections: marked no. An audit of the jail by Jeremy Wise, the state's associate superintendent of corrections, was released on 12 March 2026 and found organisation and professionalism improved under Frantz while flagging intake and assessment, medical oversight and mental health resources. The county does not publish it — it was reported by KUOW.
- deaths: the county publishes nothing about a death in custody. The Department of Health carries one unexpected-fatality review naming the Klickitat County Sheriff, Goldendale, dated 21 July 2023.
- The county's own April 2024 "Corrections | Jail Report" by Fiscal Services Manager Jennifer Neil, presented to the Board on 21 May 2024, is a 44-page published scenario analysis with budget detail, NORCOR contract terms and a SWOT analysis: https://klickitatcounty.org/1543/Corrections-Jail-Report (PDF at https://klickitatcounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/16114).
- fees: marked no — the county names accesscorrections.com for commissary funds but publishes no phone, video-visit or commissary rates.
- Washington has no state jail inspectorate and no enforceable statewide jail standards; the Corrections Standards Board was abolished in 1987 and RCW 70.48.071 leaves each local government to adopt its own. The only statewide jail record the state publishes is the Department of Health's unexpected-fatality review file under RCW 70.48.510.
- WASPC 2025 statewide jail statistics: https://www.waspc.org/annual-jail-statistics (data file https://waspc.memberclicks.net/assets/JbrsSavin/2025.xlsx)
- Three commissioners elected by district: Todd Andrews (District 1), Lori Zoller (District 2), Ron Ihrig (District 3). This Board is unusual in Washington in being the jail's governing authority directly — the Jail Administrator reports to it. No jail district and no dedicated jail tax is published.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Klickitat 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 auditor runs the election in Klickitat 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