Benton County Sheriff’s Office History

Benton County Sheriff’s Office: 175+ Years of History

The Benton County Sheriff’s Office has a long, proud history of providing public safety services to community members. Notably, that history pre-dates Oregon statehood.

In 1841, people living in the Willamette Valley chose a “High Sheriff.” In 1844, the Oregon Provisional Government created the Office of Sheriff. Four years later, in 1848, voters elected Benton County’s first Sheriff, F.W. Hofins.

Jail History

The first Benton County Jail opened in 1856 and stood until 1929. Its history was eventful. In 1860, George Williams escaped by using stove wood and part of a bed to remove the grating from the doorway between the cell area and the jailor’s room. In 1892, Sheriff Osburn posted notices near the jail prohibiting anyone from conversing with prisoners through the windows. That same year, the Benton Grand Jury recommended enlarging the windows, adding glass between the two sets of bars, and installing a water closet.

The second Benton County Jail opened in 1929. Workers razed the stucco and tile structure in July 1975 to make way for a new jail. During construction of the third and present-day jail, staff temporarily housed adults in custody at 360 Avery Avenue, now part of the Benton County Public Works office space.

Present-Day Jail

The present Benton County Jail opened on November 19, 1976, and remains in use today. Designers planned for a smaller jail. Originally it would hold only 27 offenders with a total size of approximately 8,000 square feet. The cost was about $800,000. Architect Graham Braun of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada designed both the jail and the adjoining Law Enforcement Center. He worked closely with many citizen committees.

Why Committees Kept the Jail Small

Citizen planning committees deliberately kept the jail small for several reasons. They believed lower-risk offenders should be diverted from jail and placed on supervised probation programs instead. This included those charged with misdemeanors. They also expected the Oregon Department of Corrections to build a regional jail network to house felony offenders. Making a larger local facility was unnecessary.

Work Release Center Holds Some Local Offenders

In the early 1970s, staff occasionally housed a small number of county jail offenders at the now-defunct State Work Release Center in Corvallis and at the Forest Work Camp in Tillamook. Overcrowding lawsuits filed against the Oregon Department of Corrections, combined with the economic recession of the early 1980s, ended the state work release centers.

Voters Reject Regional Jail; Local Jail Reconfigured

Oregon voters turned down funding measures for a regional jail system. As the need for jail beds in Benton County grew, staff reconfigured the 1976 jail to accommodate 40 beds. A voter-approved levy then provided funding to house an additional 40 adults in custody in jails in neighboring counties.