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Multnomah County has had a "jail population emergency" twice this month—meaning more than 95 percent of the available beds were taken up by inmates—Sheriff Mike Reese told the board of commissioners this morning. He pushed for the board to pass a resolution allowing a committee to review people who could released to make room for others who are arrested.

There's only been two days so far when the population at the two jails—the Multnomah County Detention Center downtown and Inverness Jail in Northeast Portland—dipped below 90 percent capacity. 90 percent capacity is when the sheriff's office, which runs the jails, issues an "early warning notice" to law enforcement in the county about potential overcrowding issues.

On Monday, for example, 96.6 percent of available county jail beds were taken up.

The closure this month of a 59-bed dorm room at the Inverness Jail this month brought down the available jail beds to 1,192. That dorm room was scheduled to be closed in the winter, but commissioners voted in December to spend $500,000 to keep it open until July. There were 1310 beds available last year.

Commissioners voted 3-0 this morning (Commissioners Loretta Smith and Jessica Vega Pederson were out) to approve the "Capacity Management Action Plan" that allows a committee to review which jail inmates should be released to make room for those arrested in the busy summer months. The committee will be made up court officials, defense attorneys, the Department of Community Justice, the sheriff's office, and the district attorneys office.

Reese said today that when jail population reaches 90 percent, his office informs law enforcement in the county—like, say, the Portland Police Bureau—and encourages them to consider overcrowding when arresting people (if can they cite-and-release, for example, instead of taking them to jail).

Here's the plan adopted by the county today