DIRTY, CROWDED CELLS BECOMING NORM AS METH EPIDEMIC SPREADS

At the Glacier County Jail in Cut Bank last week, three female
prisoners spent the night in a cell so small they had to take turns
leaving their beds to stand.

Upstairs, 14 male prisoners endured the sharp smell of human waste
while cramped in a filthy cell designed for eight.

Routinely filled beyond capacity, the jail is impossible to keep
clean. The 66-year-old building also poses grave safety risks for
prisoners and detention officers and liability concerns for the county.

"Nobody should be housed in this facility," said Sgt. Jeff Fauque of
the sheriff's office.

While Glacier County's jail is among the state's worst, others face a
similar crunch as the methamphetamine epidemic spreads, officials say.

Glacier County Sheriff Gary Racine twice asked taxpayers to ante up
for a new jail since he took office a decade ago. Twice voters refused.

With support from the county's economic development group, he's
proposing a $2.8 million jail bond for the June primary.

The engine driving Glacier County's jail woes is the same across
Montana. Methamphetamine offenders have been clogging county jails
since the drug became accessible a half dozen years ago.

Three-quarters of the prisoners in Glacier County's jail last week
were there on meth-related charges. Most cannot afford bond and spend
up to four months awaiting trial.

State institutions also endure the epidemic, and that puts pressure on
county jails, said Joe Williams, a Montana Department of Corrections
administrator.

About 100 prisoners in county jails last week awaited transfer to
state institutions, some of which don't have room for them.

Montana qualifies for federal money to put meth-cookers behind bars,
but the funds won't pay for new jails and prisons, Williams said.

"We are bursting at the seams in our institutional populations," he
said.

More than 40 percent of offenders on probation or parole in a
12-county region of central Montana have connections to meth, said
regional probation and parole officer Mike Redpath.

Many risk returning to jail if they slip, and the recidivism rate is
high among meth addicts, Redpath said. Some should already be back in
jail, but there's no room.

Meth has become such a problem that some state officials and advocates
feel alternatives to incarceration are crucial.

Montana lawmakers must find more creative ways to deal with the
chemically dependent, said Scott Crichton, executive director of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Montana.

"It's not enough just to say you are going to be tough on crime,"
Crichton said. "It's time legislators start being smart on crime."

Williams said the Corrections Department recognizes the need for a
more therapeutic approach. But resources are at a premium.

Voters hesitant

Glacier County officials say they're bewildered by the lack of support
for a new jail.

Voters on the Blackfeet Reservation in particular have a stake in the
jail, since roughly 90 percent of county prisoners are Blackfeet, they
say.

Voters west of the Cut Bank River -- mostly on the reservation --
voted 2-1 against the bond in 1996. The margin was narrower in 2002
but still significant.

Victor Connelly, a Blackfeet tribal member and registered voter, said
the bond has failed because tribal members want to see improvements at
the Browning jail, which he said also is in bad shape.

Connelly said the bond will fail again this time for the same
reason.

"The reservation probably needs a jail more than the county seat,"
Connelly said. "That's been the problem."

But Fauque argues that the federal government owns the Browning jail,
so local voters have little control.

"It's apples and oranges," he said, in comparing the Browning jail
with the county jail in Cut Bank.

Lawsuits force change

Racine believes it could take a lawsuit to get voters'
attention.

That's what happened a decade ago in Lake County where overcrowding
resulted in a prisoner homicide. The American Civil Liberties Union
filed suit.

In a 1999 settlement with the ACLU, Lake County commissioners agreed
to remodel part of the jail at a cost of about a half million tax dollars.

In Teton County, a lawsuit resulted in a $700,000 project to replace
the 111-year-old jail there.

Something similar could happen in Glacier County.

"Frankly, I don't know why someone hasn't sued us ... but it will
come. It's just a matter of time," said Robert Yunck, Glacier County
Justice of the Peace and Cut Bank city court judge.

Concerned about county liability, Glacier County voter Elaine Mitchell
of Cut Bank said she supported the bond in 1996 and 2002.

She'll do the same again this June despite already high property
taxes.

"From what I understand, it's kind of a (liability) powder keg that
could go off at any time," Mitchell said.

Morale suffers

Even those who never set foot in a jail are susceptible to the effects
of overcrowding.

Racine's office has up to 200 arrest warrants at any given time.
Overcrowding prevents his deputies from serving them.

Consequently, hundreds of people commit crimes each year with near
impunity.

"If people don't think that's affecting crime in Cut Bank and across
Glacier County, they're absolutely wrong," Fauque said.

The ability of criminals to thumb their noses at law enforcement is
hard on morale at the sheriff's office, he added. Deputies want to
make arrests, but they can't.

Lack of space also prevents judges and parole officers from doing
their jobs as effectively as they'd like.

Yunck said he is reluctant to threaten criminals with jail time since
limited space may prevent him from making good on such threats.

Likewise, because of the jail crunch, he sometimes must grant bond to
prisoners he'd otherwise hold in custody.

First-time DUI offenders often show up at the jail to complete their
mandatory 24 hours of incarceration, only to be told the jail is full.

Scott Brotnov, adult probation and parole officer for the Montana
Department of Corrections, said a night or two in county lockup can
sometimes remind an unruly parolee what it's like to be behind bars.
It's a deterrent he can't use.

"I have a couple in town right now that I would love to secure,"
Brotnov said.

In harm's way

If the jail has the potential to cause trouble for the community, it
poses an even greater threat to detention officers.

The facility is so antiquated that an officer who enters the men's
cell can't lock the door behind him. He's alone with more than a dozen
men, and the prisoners know this.

"If they choose to jump you, you're done," Fauque said.

Just getting male prisoners into their cell, which is on the third
floor of the Glacier County Courthouse, can be a challenge.

A drunken or belligerent prisoner can resist by grabbing railings and
other obstacles and can harm the deputies.

Fauque said he injured his back last year schlepping a 260-pound
inmate down the concrete steps on a backboard after the prisoner became ill.

"The thing that really bothers me is one of my staff members could get
hurt in that jail," Racine said. "It wouldn't sit well with me."

'Narrow-minded'

Prisoners also face risks.

"We have no way to segregate prisoners in this jail," Fauque said.
"There are fights."

A small isolation cell inside the men's community cell contains two
beds. But confine one unruly prisoner, and a valuable bed is lost.
Some prisoners already sleep on thin mats on the floor.

"Everybody tries their best to get along, but it's hard sometimes,"
said Gabriel Running Wolf, 47, of Browning. Running Wolf is serving
eight months for felony assault.

During the day, female prisoners roam outside their cell to watch
television in the adjacent room, which doubles as a staging area for
new inmates.

No physical barriers prevent them from walking upstairs to the men's
cell, or from speaking to the men, who are only a flight of stairs
away.

The alternative: Lock them in their 6-by-11-foot sleeping cell around
the clock, which is inhumane, Fauque said.

There's not enough secured storage space, so women prisoners also have
access to boxes of cleaning chemicals, bedding and other supplies
during the day.

Since inmates are innocent until proven guilty, it's conceivable an
innocent man or woman must endure the broken heating system, lack of
recreation and physical risks.

That flies in the face of critics who favor the most Spartan
conditions for criminals, an argument Glacier County Attorney Larry
Epstein called "narrow-minded."

"The community owes it to the community as a whole to provide a safe
and efficient way to house people in jail," Epstein said. "They
certainly owe it to law enforcement."

Guidelines lacking

Laws regulating jail conditions are nonexistent in
Montana.

Few states, in fact, have mandatory jail standards, said Ray
Barnicoat, risk manager for the Montana Association of Counties
insurance pools.

Montana lawmakers tried in 1993 and 1995 to adopt jail
standards.

In 1999, the Legislature adopted House Bill 185, which included a jail
inspection program.

When funding for the program didn't materialize, then-Gov. Marc
Racicot prevented the bill from becoming law.

MACo, which provides liability insurance for 47 of Montana's 56
counties, offers rate breaks for those that adopt the Montana Jail
Standards. The Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and
MACo compiled the standards.

"We have really encouraged members to adopt the Montana Jail Standards
and encouraged them to take each section of the standards and work at
them as they can," Barnicoat said. "Money is the problem."

MACo does not force counties to prove they're working toward the
standards to receive the discount, he said.

Legal remedies

Barnicoat believes the American Civil Liberties Union could press the
issue.

"(The ACLU) told us after the (Lake County) settlement that they
weren't through, and they were just watching," Barnicoat said.

Talks are now under way between the ACLU and Gallatin County over the
conditions of the jail there.

But the ACLU in Montana doesn't appear close to filing a new suit. And
Glacier County isn't at the top of its list.

Barnicoat thinks it will take something dramatic, another inmate
homicide for instance, before the ACLU pursues another court case. He
may be right.

Scott Crichton, executive director of the Montana ACLU in Helena, said
the burden of time and money required to successfully challenge a jail
condition case is enormous.

Also, the ACLU in Montana is engrossed in another lawsuit to assure
indigent criminal defendants have proper legal representation.

That means the most immediate solution to jail problems in Cut Bank
likely rests with voters.

"We simply can't go on the way we are," Glacier County Attorney
Epstein said.