Clatsop County might move jail from Astoria to Warrenton

ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) – Inmates at the 60-bed Clatsop County Jail in Astoria are often released due to overcrowding.
 
The Board of Commissioners is now looking at possibly relocating the jail to Warrenton, at the site of the shuttered North Coast Youth Correctional Facility.
 
The Daily Astorian reports one plan calls for a $12 million renovation that would include 140 beds. The other plan would include a renovation and an additional structure in the middle of the former youth facility. That facility would house 200 inmates and cost more than $28 million.
 
The Astoria jail opened in 1980, and its population has grown and shrunk, depending on economic swings.
 
Sheriff Tom Bergin says several studies since 1999 have detailed the need for expansion, though two bond measures have failed.