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County Jails in Washington

CountyJail.net offers exclusive interviews with ex-inmates from various county jails in Washington state. If you or somebody you know is heading to jail read about what life is really like behind bars.

County jails in Washington
Washington state has quite a few county jails that stay awfully busy. At the top of this list is King County Jail. Serving a population of 1.9 million people (including the residents of Seattle) it is no surprise that this is one of the busiest jails in the United States.

Other popular county jails in the state include Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane.

Time off for good behavior
Most county jails in Washington offer time off for good behavior. As a general rule you can expect to have about ten days off each month meaning that on a one year sentence you will only serve eight months. If you are looking for a specific jail the time may vary, but this amount of time off for good behavior is on the high end of what you can expect in the US.

While this is generally called "time off for good behavior" or "good time," this is a misnomer. More correctly it should be called "time off for not behaving badly." You will get your time off by default and won't lose it unless you are fighting with other inmates, talking back to CO's or just causing problems.

How to get along with other inmates
If you want to pass your time without incident you need to learn how to interact with other inmates. The easiest way to do this is to stay out of their way as much as possible and keep to yourself. If you have a longer sentence it might become necessary at some point to make friends but do so carefully and put a lot of thought into who you decide to be friends with. If you are befriending gang members, for instance, you might inadvertently make yourself a target to members of a rival gang.

Drugs in jail
Drugs are a big problem in county jails across Washington state. Many ex-inmates report that drugs were easier to get inside of the jail than out on the streets at some times. The drugs usually are smuggled in by inmates though many inmates believe the guards bring them in to supplement their meager salaries.