County jail can't stay on back burner

It was a good idea to have impartial, professional eyes take a look at the Flathead County jail. Even better is the discussion it has already started to generate.

Two representatives from the National Institute of Corrections were in town last week, touring and talking about the facility. The sheriff's office opened the jail to scrutiny and awaits a formal report in a few weeks.

The evaluators, who don't charge for their expertise, made two immediate assessments, however. The first was reassuring; the second was unsettling.

The jail is clean, well-maintained and well-managed, they said. That's good news for taxpayers.

The jail also is not a place where criminals serve their sentences, for the most part. The study found that about 99 percent of the prisoners are people who are awaiting trial.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Robert Aguirri of Michigan. He has evaluated 60 to 70 jails.

He and Fran Zandi of Denver synthesized information from a number of entities involved in the judicial system in Flathead County and found that about 96 percent of the people in the jail this week are accused of felonies.

At some point, the jail became a holding facility for people who have not been convicted of anything.

That changes the way the justice system works, Aguirri said. Judges are less likely to zap defendants with a shot of reality by sentencing them to jail time because they know there is no place to put them. And many defendants will have already served their time before their case is adjudicated anyway.

Evaluators didn't have to tell officials that the 20-year-old jail is overcrowded. That's been apparent. Indeed, the population has risen on many days to about 100 prisoners in a facility built for 65-68 at most.

Law-enforcement officers are aware of the jail population every day and the magic number of 107 helps determine whether or not they will take a prisoner to jail or be turned away because there is no room at the inn.

People often evaluate jail space based on the number of bodies it can hold. But there's more to it, Zandi wanted people to know. Services such as food, laundry, medical care, and simple processing of prisoners have to be able to flex to handle the numbers, too.

It is inevitable that changes will be made in the jail. A ballot issue could appear as soon as this year to expand it. Inviting the institute for an assessment was a first step toward a solution. It won't be easy to find one though. Officials say that if the jail is rebuilt or expanded to hold 200 people, it will quickly fill up.

So, parallel to discussion of more bed space will be consideration of how the entire system works. Maybe bond is being set too high for defendants who pose no risk to the community and could be released by posting lower amounts. Maybe there are other supervision programs to make sure a defendant is law-abiding while awaiting trial. It costs $50 a day to house an inmate. That presents its own funding issues, because supervision also comes at a fee, and a cell vacated by one prisoner will likely be filled with another if there is room.

The National Institute of Corrections has compiled some good data for Flathead County to use. Now, it's up to officials to expand on that and plan exactly what they want to make of our jail. Then it will probably be up to the voters.