The Detention Center
Okanogan County Corrections Center (Okanogan County Jail)
- Operated byOkanogan County Sheriff's Office
- Year built1983 — 'Originally built in 1983, the jail housed 67 inmates' (county Corrections/Jail page)
- Expansions2000, 2002 and 2003; the county describes the result as 'a comfortable 194-bed facility'
- Rated beds (state figure)55 in the WASPC 2025 return — far below the 194 the county advertises
- Average daily population 202569.1, above the 55 rated beds reported to the state (WASPC 2025)
- Throughput 20251,183 admissions, average length of stay 27.4 days (WASPC 2025)
- In-custody deaths 2025None — the Sheriff's Office answered 'No' in the WASPC 2025 return
- Who it holds'All individuals who are arrested in Okanogan County by any law enforcement agency'; bail can also be posted at the jail lobby for Douglas County Superior and District Court charges
- AlternativesElectronic home monitoring, work release and a work crew that clears illegal dumpsites and litter, works with the U.S. Forest Service, WDFW and county Public Works
- VisitationNo in-person visitation. Video only — two free 15-minute lobby-kiosk visits per inmate per week, or paid remote visits through PayTel; no PayTel rates published
- Published fee$0.25 per approved photo sent through the PayTel Connect app, charged to the sender
- Facility street addressNot found — the county gives 'Okanogan County Jail, Okanogan, WA 98840' for legal mail and money orders, and routes scanned mail to a PO box in Greensboro, NC
- Original cost / fundingNot found — checked the Corrections/Jail page, Booking & Inmate Log, Bail & Bonds, Inmate Mail, Phone, Commissary, Financial and Property pages, Jail Visiting, the Sheriff's Office index and the county budget books
Source: Okanogan County — Corrections / Jail · 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 — 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 built1983
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds194 according to the county's Corrections/Jail page; 55 rated beds in the WASPC 2025 Annual Jail Statistics
Since then
- 2000
- 2002
- 2003 — the county says these expansions raised bed capacity to its current level of 194
The Sheriff
Sheriff Jodie Barcus
- Runs the jailYes — Okanogan County has created no department of corrections; the Corrections Center is run by the Sheriff's Office
- How the office is filledElected countywide to a four-year term (RCW 36.16.030). Barcus was sworn in effective Monday 6 April 2026, moving up from Chief Criminal Deputy, after Sheriff Paul Budrow left office; she was sworn in by Superior Court Judge Kathryn I. Burke
- Named on the county websiteNo — the Sheriff's Office pages on okanogancounty.gov do not name the sitting sheriff (checked August 2026)
- OfficeOkanogan County Sheriff's Office, 123 5th Ave, Room 200, Okanogan, WA 98840 — 509-422-7200; Corrections Center extension 7230
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: KHQ — Okanogan County swears in Jodie Barcus as incoming 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. 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.
Okanogan County Superior Court — 149 3rd Ave N, Okanogan
- Kathryn I. Burke, Judge
- Rachel Hong, Judge
Okanogan County District Court — 149 N 3rd Ave, Rm 306, Okanogan
- Byron Moore, Judge
- Charles D. Short, Judge
Municipal courts — Brewster, Omak and Winthrop (Coulee Dam, Elmer City, Okanogan, Oroville, Pateros, Riverside, Tonasket and Twisp use the county District Court)
- Alex H.S. Thomason, Judge (Brewster)
- David Ebenger, Judge (Omak and Winthrop)
- 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
- The gap between the 194 beds the county advertises and the 55 rated beds it reported to WASPC for 2025 is large and unexplained on the county's site; the 2025 average daily population of 69.1 sits above the state figure and well below the county figure.
- The county names no sheriff anywhere on its Sheriff's Office pages. Sheriff Jodie Barcus took office on 6 April 2026 after the seat became vacant; she is sourced here to news reporting, not to the county.
- The Booking & Inmate Log page publishes both a Daily Booking Log for the current month and a Daily Inmate Log of everyone currently incarcerated, updated Monday to Friday.
- The 2026 Adopted Budget PDF on the county site is a scanned image with no extractable text; the 2025 Final Budget Book, which is text-searchable, shows a Jail department (013), a Jail Improvement Fund, a Jail Commissary fund, a 'Cities/Jail Fees Costs' revenue line and a JAIL SCAAP grant line, and is cited for the budget check.
- No PREA material, no death-in-custody information and no inspection or accreditation result is published. Phone service is fee-based through PayTel and commissary is charged, but the only rate the county publishes is $0.25 per approved photo, so the fees check is recorded 'no'.
- Board of County Commissioners — three partisan commissioners, nominated in a district primary and elected countywide to four-year terms: Andy Hover (Chairman), Jon Neal (Vice-Chairman), Nick Timm. Stacy Nicole McClellan is Clerk of the Board. Meetings at 9 a.m. every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the Commissioners' Hearing Room, 123 5th Ave N, Okanogan. The county budget carries a separate Jail department (013), plus a Jail Improvement Fund and a Jail Commissary fund. No county jail district was found.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Okanogan 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 Okanogan 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