Your Benton County Jail

Your Benton County Jail

By Oregon State law, the Sheriff’s Office must maintain a county jail.

The Benton County Jail is located next to the historic Benton County Courthouse in downtown Corvallis. It was built in 1976 and is approximately 8,000 square feet in size.

Originally designed to house 27 adults in custody (AIC), it has been remodeled over the years to increase capacity to 40 beds. However, we cannot actually fit 40 inmates into the Jail because not all AICs can be housed together.  By statute, men and women are to be housed separately, AICs are to be segregated due to the nature of their crime, and those with mental or behavioral issues are also to be separated. As a result, the Jail is “at capacity” when we are housing an average of 28 to 34 inmates.

Over the years, the Sheriff’s Office has creatively managed jail capacity. We do that by renting jail beds in other facilities, releasing AICs early, and closing the jail to new arrestees. Our Virtual Jail Statistics show how many individuals would normally be held in the Benton County Jail but have been released due to lack of bed space.