County hires firm to evaluate jail needs

Flathead County is launching a comprehensive assessment of its adult detention center to determine its current and future needs.

County commissioners on Thursday approved a contract for $166,000 with Slate Architecture to complete the study. The firm is based in both Helena and Omaha, Nebraska.

The county has long dealt with a growing jail population. Built in 1984, the county’s adult detention center has since undergone multiple remodels.

The assessment is expected to include a detailed evaluation of the county’s demographics, crime statistics and population trends. It will also look at the current needs while creating a 20-year forecast for what’s needed based upon expected demand and develop options for meeting bed capacity projections.

In addition, the assessment will provide a staffing and financial analysis, including construction and ongoing operational costs. It is also expected to result in one design option.

Slate will look at historic data for the past 10 years for the county, and state, justice and behavioral health agencies to examine past trends in “county crime, arrest, conviction and probation/parole violation rates, as well as substance abuse and mental illness incidence, to ascertain how these factors may have affected the county’s detention center inmate population growth.”

The study is expected to look at factors that have affected the detention center population and provide a summary of observations and factors that “decision-makers deem likely to shape future detention center population size and characteristics.”

When the jail was constructed it was designed to house 67 inmates. Multiple remodels, and the addition of double-bunking, have increased capacity to 134 inmates. The jail routinely holds 100 inmates every night with the average daily population in 2021 at about 106 inmates, according to county figures.

It’s not just the number of inmates that can be housed, but the jail's configuration that needs reconsideration. The current facility is linear in design and is on three levels, which limits the ability of staff to effectively manage the inmate population, the county notes. The bed configuration also makes it challenging for staff to properly separate inmates as needed.

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.