Pierce County

The Detention Center

Pierce County Jail — Main Jail and New Jail

• Operated byPierce County Sheriff's Department, Corrections Bureau
• Main Jail address910 Tacoma Ave. S, Tacoma, WA — on the corner of S. 9th and Tacoma Avenue
• New Jail address701 Nollmeyer Ln, Tacoma, WA 98402 — on the corner of Nollmeyer Lane and Yakima Avenue
• Published capacity'Our facilities are able to house up to 1,800 inmates' but 'our staffing budget allows us to house approximately 1,296 inmates in our two facilities' (county jail page)
• Rated beds (state figure)788 — WASPC 2025 Annual Jail Statistics
• Average daily population 2025901.4, above the 788 rated beds reported to the state (WASPC 2025)
• Throughput 202514,910 admissions, average length of stay 25.4 days (WASPC 2025)
• In-custody deaths 2025Yes — the Sheriff's Department answered 'Yes' in the WASPC 2025 return. The Department of Health has posted five unexpected-fatality reviews naming Pierce County Jail or the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, published between 19 December 2025 and 7 April 2026
• StaffingThe jail says it faces staffing shortages; visitation remains restricted and the public reception desk is closed
• Contract bedsThe county says it contracts bed space to multiple agencies throughout Pierce County. The only rate document found on the county site is a 2013 performance audit of misdemeanant contract rates presented to the Council and the Performance Audit Committee, not a current rate schedule
• Phone and moneySecurus provides inmate phones; calls up to 20 minutes, recorded, collect or prepaid. Deposits through touchpaydirect.com or 1-866-232-1899. No rates are published
• Year built / original cost / fundingNot found — checked the Pierce County Jail page, Jail Locations, Inmate Listing, Inmate Telephones, Inmate Money, Jail Visitation, PREA, Posting Bail, the Council budget pages and the Budget Documents page

Source: Pierce County Sheriff's Office — Corrections Bureau · checked 2026-08-23

• ✓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

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Pierce County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-23. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

• Year builtNot found
• Original costNot found
• Paid for byNot found
• BedsThe county publishes both figures: the two facilities can hold up to 1,800 people, but the staffing budget allows about 1,296. WASPC's 2025 return gives 788 rated beds against an average daily population of 901.4

The Sheriff

Sheriff Keith Swank

• Runs the jailYes — through the Pierce County Sheriff's Department Corrections Bureau. Pierce County has created no separate civilian department of corrections, so under RCW 70.48.090(4) the Sheriff has charge of the jail
• How the office is filledElected countywide to a four-year term (RCW 36.16.030)
• Corrections BureauThree divisions — administration, operations and program — and about 300 limited-commission deputies
• Before PierceTwenty-plus years with the Seattle Police Department, rising to Captain; U.S. Army Ranger and Airborne school graduate

Source: Pierce County — Meet Your 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. Pierce County's Superior Court elects its own Presiding Judge from among the 23 departmental judges; the Presiding Judge is chosen by the bench, not by the voters or the County Council, and ten full-time court commissioners hear much of the calendar.

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 →