Multnomah County Defunds Weekend Jail Program

“Turn Self In” allowed people to serve jail time on weekends in the courthouse.

courthouse Multnomah County Courthouse. (Sam Gehrke)

A popular, long-running Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office program called “Turn Self In,” which allows people to serve jail time on weekends in the courthouse rather than disrupting their lives with traditional incarceration, ends this week.

It’s counterintuitive that the county would ax an alternative to incarceration, even as it reduces jail capacity. The county has slashed the number of available jail beds from 2,073 two decades ago to 1,039 this year. That reflects criminal justice reform and the county’s chronic financial difficulties.

Sheriff Mike Reese says he didn’t want to end the program but needed the $280,000 it cost to balance his budget.

“TSI is a valuable program that provided judges an alternative to traditional incarnation,” Reese says. “We also acknowledge the fiscal constraint on the county budget and the difficult decisions the chair and commissioners have to make.”

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