Valley County Jail: Often Filled Up

Statewide complaints are being heard about crowded jail cells. Inmates are sleeping wherever beds might be able to fit and a lot of movement of prisoners from one jail cell to another has been taking place to cover the lack of spaces available.

Valley County's jail has been housing an average of 30 inmates. Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier said that they have been charging other counties $60 a day to house inmates. Inmates have been held from Phillips, McCone, Roosevelt, Blaine, Hill and Custer counties and other various locations in the Eastern Montana that might need a little help. The Department of Corrections has also sent some inmates to hold from Glendive.

“We were up to 36 at one point, but it's been hanging around 28-32 for a long time now,” Meier said.

The jail has been full since September and moving into January. The numbers were finally dropping just below that when Meier was interviewed, but it seemed that the six months average told a story that might not see the number permanently drop. Locally, an average of 12 inmates are seen from Valley County. A contract with Custer County has eight slots open for them at any given time. Meier said that they could start turning prisoners away if numbers continue to climb.

“Our populations went from 800,000 to one million people and that hasn't been addressed,” Meier said. “Custer County is almost done building their new jail, but they could still be full.”

Meier explained that crimes against people were down 55 percent in the last year, but crimes against property were up 44 percent, breaking and entering was up 83 percent, vehicle theft was up 400 percent and vandalism went up 33 percent. He noted that some of those numbers could be deceiving, like car thefts, as there was only one the year prior, which made that percentage jump a lot higher, but the numbers still tell him that drug crimes are up 76 percent in the county.

Warden Tom Green from the Dawson County Department of Corrections explained that they only have limited space in their area. He said that after sentencing, a prisoner can sit in their space for up to six months before they get moved to where they are supposed to go. He said that while the Bakken may have some blame to the increase of population, he said that statewide they're seeing a population increase.

Dawson County had a bond fail with the voters in November to expand the jail for $9 million; $4.5 million would come from the bond. He said that they're looking towards the state and legislature now to see if there's any options to help with the growing prison population and infrastructure needs.

“Last Tuesday, a week ago we had 46 county inmates in jail. Like I said we only have 24 beds,” Green said. He added that because of this huge influx in one week, several prisoners had to be moved to other locations, which costs their county money. He said that the costs of transportation also takes on at least $250 in wages, possible overnight stay, and to Valley County around $300 costs for fuel. Gallatin County charges $65 a day for housing prisoners.

“Meier and Gallatin are helping us out, but that's just a short term solution,” Green said. “I really believe it's not just a Glendive or Glasgow issue.”

Valley County billed out about $167,000 in the last year to house other inmates. Meier said that they had talked about raising the cost to house inmates, and because of the steady use they're already looking at small maintenance needing done, like painting or repairing water fixtures. But currently the jail, only five years old, has helped reaped some of the benefits from the overcrowding taking place in Eastern Montana.

One of the bigger costs, Meier stated, was the mental health issues. Transporting inmates to Warm Springs is a cost that has been taking a chunk from the budget.

Another cost that the jail might be looking at in the future is contracting a nursing staff member to check with prisoners on health issues they might not divulge during booking, or monitoring chronic problems like diabetes or high blood pressure.

“Our next goal is taking care of some of those health issues in our jail,” Meier said.

Currently they end up taking prisoners to the hospital if there seems to be an issue. But that can be a problem when it comes to safety of staff, the public and prisoners.

They are currently looking at purchasing “boats.” They're beds that fit underneath other beds and can be pulled out at night to house more prisoners.