The Detention Center
Mason County Jail
- Operated byMason County Sheriff's Office
- LocationAdjacent to the county courthouse in the incorporated area of Shelton (county jail page); inmate mail goes to c/o Mason County Jail, P.O. Box 519, Shelton, WA 98584
- Who it holdsProvides incarceration services for Mason County law enforcement agencies
- Rated beds (state figure)94 — WASPC 2025 Annual Jail Statistics; the county publishes no capacity figure
- Average daily population 202563.3, against 94 rated beds (WASPC 2025)
- Throughput 20251,493 admissions, average length of stay 18.4 days (WASPC 2025)
- In-custody deaths 2025None — the Sheriff's Office answered 'No' in the WASPC 2025 return
- AccreditationThe county states the jail is WASPC accredited and that the Sheriff's Office has been Washington State Accredited since 1990; no audit or inspection report is posted
- VisitationAll visitation is by video through contract vendor Inmate Sales; the jail moved from Securus to Inmate Sales on 12 August 2024. No rate card is published
- Contract housingThe 2026 approved budget carries a 'City of Shelton jail space' revenue line budgeted at $155,000 for 2026; no per-day rate is published
- Jail expansion studyThe 2026 approved budget shows $650,447 of jail expansion study revenue received in 2024
- RosterA 'Current Inmate List, by Permanent Bed' PDF and a 48-hour release list are published on the county's own hub server
- Year built / original cost / fundingNot found — checked the Corrections/Jail page, jail FAQs, Visitation, PREA, Alternative Sentencing, Litter Crew, the Sheriff's About Us pages, the Sheriff's budget reports and the 2026 approved budget book
Source: Mason County — Corrections / Jail · 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 builtNot found
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds94 rated beds in the WASPC 2025 Annual Jail Statistics; the county itself publishes no bed count
Since then
- Not found — the 2026 approved budget records $650,447 of 'jail expansion study' revenue received in 2024, but no study or expansion result is published
The Sheriff
Sheriff Ryan Spurling
- Runs the jailYes — the county's own jail page says state law makes the Board of County Commissioners responsible for the physical facility and the Sheriff, as chief law enforcement officer, responsible for facility operations
- How the office is filledElected countywide to a four-year term (RCW 36.16.030)
- Day-to-day jail managementThe county budget carries a 'Jail Chief' position in the Sheriff's corrections appropriation
- Office322 North 3rd Street, Shelton, WA 98584 — 360-427-9670 ext 313
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Mason County — Sheriff's Office Command Staff · checked 2026-08-23
The Judges
Washington Superior Court judges are elected in nonpartisan countywide races and District Court judges 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. Vacancies are filled by gubernatorial appointment until the next election. Court rosters here come from the Administrative Office of the Courts' county directory.
Mason County Superior Court — 419 N 4th St, Shelton
- Tirsa Butler, Judge
- Monty D. Cobb, Judge
- David Stevens, Judge
- Meredith Gerhart, Commissioner
- Jason Kinn, Commissioner
Mason County District Court — 414 W Franklin St, Shelton
- George Alan Steele, Judge
Shelton Municipal Court — 525 W Cota St, Shelton
- Stephen D. Greer, 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
- Mason County publishes an unusually full set of jail documents for its size — a live in-custody list, an in-custody offence list, a 48-hour release list, the jail's own policy manual, monthly Sheriff's Office budget reports and the full county budget book.
- The PREA page describes the federal law, the jail's zero-tolerance policy and a reporting hotline, but publishes no audit report or audit result, so the PREA check is recorded 'no'.
- The county states the jail is WASPC accredited and the Sheriff's Office has been state accredited since 1990. That is an independent assessment, but no inspection report or finding is posted, so the inspections check is recorded 'no'.
- No page on the county site explains how to post bail, and no phone, video-visit or commissary rate card is published — visitors are sent to the vendor, Inmate Sales.
- A 'Contracts and Interlocal Agreements' Laserfiche repository is linked from the Commissioners' pages; the City of Shelton jail-space agreement was not located in it, so no rate is recorded.
- Board of County Commissioners — three partisan commissioners, nominated in a district primary and elected countywide to four-year terms: Randy Neatherlin (District 1, Vice-Chair, term 2013-2028), Pat Tarzwell (District 2, Chair, term 2025-2028), Sharon Trask (District 3, term 2019-2026). Briefings every Monday at 9 a.m., regular meetings every other Tuesday at 9 a.m. The county's own jail page states the Board is responsible for the jail building while the Sheriff runs it. No jail district and no dedicated jail tax appear on the county site; the jail sits in the Current Expense fund, with a City of Shelton jail-space revenue line.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Mason 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 Mason 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