COQUILLE - Almost three years ago, Coos County laid off 22 jail workers and limited the number of prisoners it would house, all to save slightly less than $1 million a year.

Today, felons walk free in a third of the time, yet jail spending has climbed back to pre-layoff levels.

Walking from one dimly lit and desolate jail pod to the next, Sheriff Andy Jackson and Jail Commander Sgt. Delphine Green say little rehabilitation takes place within these walls anymore. Even if the inmates aren’t immediately released, most supportive programs have been cut.

“Everything we do in the criminal justice system has a trickle-down effect,” Jackson said. “There is no way we could say we are providing the same level of community service.”

Even so, costs are on the rise. Jackson and county commissioners say the cost of health care is primarily to blame.

In 2007, after laying off a third of the jail staff, the county cut the number of inmates it would incarcerate from 160 to 97 -- well below the maximums set by other counties with similar populations.

In the 2006-07 fiscal year budget, when the jail cap stood at 160, the county spent roughly $4.4 million on the jail. That number was cut to $3.5 million in 2007-08, but it has crept back to $4.2 million for 2009-10. Last year, the jail spent $3.8 million.

The materials and supplies line item is the biggest financial offender, inflating from about $791,000 in 2007 to almost $1.1 million.

Jackson said the cost increase came this summer, when the county contracted with a private company for inmate medical care. The jail previously contracted with a local doctor and nurse, but it had a hard time keeping the positions filled. The new arrangement costs the county about $500,000 more a year.

“I think this is definitely a better way to go,” Jackson said.

With a 38-person full-time staff, down from 59, labor this year will cost $500,000 less than in 2006. But labor costs are rising, due to salary and benefit increases. The jail also has hired extra help.

“It was really tough after the layoffs,” Green said. “But it’s getting better. We work a lot of overtime and really hard, but it’s getting better.”

From July 2005 to June 2006, the average daily Coos County jail population was 189 inmates.  After the cuts, from July 2008 through June 2009, the number plummeted to 82.

To prevent overcrowding, judges have imposed shorter felony sentences, Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said.

“Before, they were getting 30 days,” he said. “Now they are getting eight days.”

Under Oregon’s sentencing rules, judges will have to continue to hand out minimal sentences until the county raises the cap.

Based on the average 2009 jail population, the jail could accommodate about 15 additional inmates each day without hitting the cap. But Judge Richard Barron said authorities try not to stay wedged against the limit.

Barron said filling the jail every day is not the most efficient use of taxpayer’s money. Nor is it in the community’s best interest.

“If we sentence someone to a year, and if the jail is full, they could walk in 10 days,” said Barron, who has been ruling in Coos County since 1980. “That doesn’t send a message to anyone. We work hard not to just fill the jail.”

When the jail does fill up, the jail commander has the authority to release prisoners early. When deciding who gets to go, Green considers the nature of the crime, whether there have been multiple offenses, and whether that person has a job, among other factors.

On the streets, officers are handing out more citations, rather than arresting offenders.

State law doesn’t set a specific employee-to-inmate ratio for jails. In some counties, county commissioners set the ratio. Other counties have no bed cap, said Jeanette Davidson, president of the Oregon Sheriff’s Jail Command Council. Green said in Coos County the deputy to inmate ratio is usually one to 28, with seven staff watching the floor each day and five at night.

Klamath County, which has about 3,000 more people than Coos County’s 63,210 population, has 174 jail beds in use. With a population of 68,235, Polk County has 204 beds, which it supervises with 37 full-time jail employees, one fewer than Coos County’s 38.

But Jackson said the pod-style design of Coos County’s jail requires more staff for safe supervision.

Coos County Commissioner Nikki Whitty said she and her fellow commissioners decided to lower the cap based on recommendations from Jackson after the layoffs. But Commissioner Bob Main isn’t satisfied.

“I’m not happy with the 97-bed cap,” Main said. “I don’t like turning people loose when they should be incarcerated. The most important thing for society is protection. That would be the last thing I would cut.”

Corrections Director Roy Wright said shorter sentences have both pluses and minuses.

“When they first cut back, it knocked us through a loop,” Wright said. “We learned over time to make adjustments. It caused us to get creative.”

Some people need more time in jail than others, Wright said. But it doesn’t always work that way. It used to be that some probation violators were jailed for three or four months. Now they may get 30 days. For stubborn offenders, that isn’t always enough time to break the cycle of criminality.

“They are stuck in their bad habits,” he said. “With them, we run out of days very quickly.”

So corrections officers have found new ways to reach the inmates. Efforts to get drug-offenders into treatment have increased. More sober-living and halfway houses are available. And new therapy aims to teach patients to think about consequences. Probation officers also have been going on extra house visits and stepping up drug testing.

For now, those steps seem to be all the county can do.

Jackson says restoring the jail to its former capacity of 160 inmates and 60 deputies would cost another $1 million a year. The county doesn’t have it.