The Detention Center
Skagit County Community Justice Center (Skagit County Jail)
- Operated bySkagit County Sheriff's Office — Corrections Division
- Jail address201 Suzanne Lane, Mount Vernon, WA 98273 — 360-416-1960
- Chief of CorrectionsDon Marlow
- Corrections staffing58 corrections deputies, 8 corrections sergeants and 2 lieutenants, plus contract medical and food vendors — the county's own Corrections page
- OpenedLate summer 2017, with "room to sleep 400" — county press release of 27 June 2017
- The jail it replacedOpened 1984 with a capacity of 83, 73 of them state-funded; by 2004 it averaged 188 — county New Jail Project Status page
- Rated beds (state figure)408 — WASPC 2025 Annual Jail Statistics; the county itself publishes no bed count
- Average daily population 2025246.2, against 408 rated beds (WASPC 2025)
- Throughput 20253,302 admissions, average length of stay 29.33 days (WASPC 2025)
- In-custody deaths 2025None — the Sheriff's Office answered "No" in the WASPC 2025 return
- Phone and video vendorCIDNET — the county publishes no rate card
- Original cost / fundingNot found — checked the Corrections page, the New Jail Project Status page, the Planning & Development Services jail page, the 2017 press release and the 2026 preliminary budget documents
Source: Skagit 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 — not published
- ✗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 builtOpened late summer 2017; the jail it replaced opened in 1984
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found — the county publishes no funding statement for the Community Justice Center; of the 1984 jail's 83 beds, 73 were state-funded
- Beds"Room to sleep 400" in the county's 2017 press release; 408 rated beds in the WASPC 2025 return
Since then
- The 1984 jail (83 beds) was replaced, not expanded, by the Community Justice Center in 2017
The Sheriff
Sheriff Don McDermott
- Runs the jailYes — Skagit County has created no department of corrections, so under RCW 70.48.090(4) the Sheriff's Office Corrections Division has charge of the jail
- Day-to-day jail managementDon Marlow, Chief of Corrections
- How the office is filledElected countywide to a four-year term (RCW 36.16.030)
- Office1800 Continental Place, Mount Vernon, WA 98273 — 360-416-1911
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Skagit County — Sheriff's Office · 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 and not 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. Neither the county nor the AOC directory identifies which Skagit Superior Court judge is presiding.
Skagit County Superior Court — 205 W Kincaid St, Rm 202, Mount Vernon
- Mary K. Crandall, Judge
- Elizabeth Yost Neidzwski, Judge
- Laura M. Riquelme, Judge
- Heather D. Shand, Judge
- Rebecca Carroll, Commissioner
- Haley W. Sebens, Commissioner
Skagit County District Court — 600 S 3rd St, Mount Vernon
- Warren M. Gilbert, Judge
- Jenifer G. Howson, Judge
- Paul W. Nielsen, Judge
- Patrick A. Eason, Commissioner
- Sarah Hayne, 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
- The county has a PREA page, but it explains the federal law and how to report — no audit report, audit date or auditor is published.
- The Jail FAQ explains that bondable bail can be posted through a bail bond agency or in cash at the kiosk in the jail lobby, and says the jail will not recommend a bondsman. That is the bail guidance the county publishes.
- The 2026 preliminary General Fund expense budget lists Sheriff, District Court, Superior Court, Public Defender and Coroner, but no Jail or Corrections department line; the non-General Fund expense budget carries no jail, jail sales tax or jail bond fund either. A budget is published; a corrections budget is not.
- Snohomish County publishes a jail services interlocal agreement with Skagit County carrying a per-inmate daily rate, but Skagit itself publishes no contract or rate.
- No phone, video-visit or commissary rate card, no death-in-custody information, no capacity figure and no inspection or accreditation result appear on the county site.
- Board of County Commissioners — three commissioners nominated in a district primary and elected countywide to staggered four-year terms: Ron Wesen (District 1), Peter Browning (District 2), Joe Burns (District 3). The Board meets in the Commissioners' Hearing Room, 1800 Continental Place, Mount Vernon, with Zoom access. No jail district and no dedicated jail tax appear on the county site; the 2026 preliminary General Fund and non-General Fund expense budgets carry no separate Jail or Corrections appropriation, so the jail is funded inside the Sheriff's line.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Skagit 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 Skagit 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