Committee formed to get county jail reopened

Discussions continued on Friday at the Mineral County commissioners’ meeting regarding the closure of the county jail. It closed the previous Friday due to insufficient staffing. After a jailer was let go and two more quit over the past few weeks, it left only two jailers to staff the facility.

It was a packed meeting at 1 p.m. on Nov. 3 as county deputies, Sheriff Tom Bauer, Undersheriff Mike Boone, and County Attorney Ellen Donohue wrangled with the issues surrounding the closure. Also on hand were several community members and personnel from the dispatch team along with Roni Phillips, who has worked in dispatch and detention for over 20 years and is the mayor of Superior.

The jail was built in the 1990s and can house up to 28 inmates. When it closed last week, around 15 inmates were sent to other facilities. In addition to arrests made in Mineral County, overflow prisoners from other counties and those made by the Montana Highway Patrol are housed in the county jail.

Overflow and Highway Patrol prisoners use the facility at a cost of about $62 per day, which is low compared to other jails. For example Missoula jail costs about $100. Sheriff Bauer said he has been wanting to increase the county’s fee but hadn’t implemented it before last week’s closure.

Trial attorney Lance Jasper was surprised to hear about the closure and worried about the impact on the county including attracting new businesses and the loss of revenue surrounding lost jobs. Those employees who are working here will buy houses and put their kids into local schools, he said. Plus other businesses benefit from jail needs such as feeding the prisoners.

“I was surprised to learn about this situation. It seems like cancer started months ago and everyone let it fester until it blew up,” said Jasper.

However, Sheriff Bauer said this problem isn’t something new. “We’ve always had problems on being short-handed ever since I was a deputy here in the ’90s. It’s not just limited to the Sheriff’s Department, people have left the county in the last year to go to different jobs that pay better and from what I’m hearing for most of them it’s the money. There are some other issues that we’ve addressed and we are fixing but for most of the people I’ve talked to, it’s money.”

Regarding funds, Zylawy said the biggest problems are the inconvenience for law enforcement, judges and the incurred cost of transportation and housing if prisoners are sent elsewhere. “Last year with the jail, revenue and tax dollars the jail was actually a loss of $74,000. Sometimes there’s maybe a year where we break even. In 2015 it was a loss of $149,000; in 2016 it was a loss of $80,000.”

He also said that if, on average, there are five inmates a week they have to house elsewhere it will be a $180,000 loss to the county. The detention center is considered fully staffed with six employees. Currently they make between $10 and $11 per hour.

One suggestion was to bring in an administrator to help get the department back on track. The position could be temporary or permanent. Bauer was in favor of the idea and said other facilities often do have an administrator.

By the end of the meeting it was decided to create a committee who would look at the situation and bring recommendations back to the commissioners. Since this is such a time-sensitive issue, committee members were chosen during the meeting and those in attendance met immediately after the meeting to get the ball rolling. They hoped to have recommendations back by next week. The tentative committee members include Judy Stang, who used to be a county commissioner; Gordon Hendrick, who used to be a Montana legislator; detention officer Mathew Coleman; finance officer Jessica Connolly; both the sheriff and undersheriff; and trial lawyer Lance Jasper, along with the county attorney and commissioners.