Thurston Sheriff’s Office gets OK to buy biomedical sensors for county jail

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office will install biomedical sensors in its jail so it can monitor people who are deemed “high risk.” The Board of County Commissioners approved the purchase of seven such sensors from Reassurance Solutions LLC for $48,268 on Tuesday.

These sensors can detect a person’s heart rate, respiratory rate and movement, even through clothing and blankets, according to county documents. The technology is intended to be mounted on a wall or ceiling within a cell and is fireproof, waterproof and shatter resistant.

If they work as advertised, these sensors will help jail staff respond more quickly to medical events such as drug overdoses and other emergencies.

Over the years, the jail has seen occasional drug overdoses, some of which Sheriff Derek Sanders has publicly discussed. The board approved the purchase of the sensors by action on its consent agenda, so there was no discussion about it Tuesday. However, Sanders and Undersheriff Ruben Mancillas had briefed the board about the request on May 13.

“I think the biggest bit of it for these is its monitoring them constantly, not just when I go and look in the little window to do my timely check,” Mancillas said.

Sanders shared one anecdote that showed the limitations of corrections officers’ timely checks of inmates. He said in this case, a person in cell tried to harm themselves after a corrections deputy walked away.

“They knew that they had 15 minutes and they tried to kill themselves,” Sanders said. “It just so happened that the deputy was like, ‘Oh, I forgot something,’ and walked back by and was like, ‘Whoa.’”

Sanders said these sensors should help fill in those gaps when deputy’s aren’t looking. To start, he said they will be placed in “high-risk” cells, including what he called “suicide watch” cells. He said sensors also will be placed in single holding cells in the booking area where correctional deputies place people who are intoxicated or going through acute withdrawal.

Mancillas said the Sheriff’s Office will pay for the first batch of sensors with a grant from the Washington Counties Risk Pool. If all goes well, Sanders said his office may seek to purchase more.

“Our hope is that if they do provide a valuable resource, which we think they will, then we can seek some more grant money in the future to start building out the cell areas as well,” Sanders said.

County Commissioner Rachel Grant, who has professional background in behavioral health, praised the Sheriff’s Office’s plan.

“This is great,” Grant said. “Just really innovative and will really help those who are coming in.”

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