PRISONERS, PROBLEMS PACK OZARKS JAILS

Many Counties Are Beset With Crowded, Crumbling Facilities. Even New Jails
Have Staffing, Other
Issues.

MOUNT VERNON -- Since it was built in 1987, the Lawrence County Jail has
been a template for inmates' anger and ingenuity.

A tour of the jail last week revealed its shortcomings: metal bars welded
over a door that had been kicked in; cardboard taped around a surveillance
camera to keep prisoners from disabling it with wads of wet toilet paper;
wire grates bolted over thick panes of glass inmates had learned to shift
to obtain items from outside.

"They have nothing else to do," said Sheriff Doug Seneker from the day room
in the jail, where prisoners had managed to fish contraband - such as
marijuana - through tiny holes in a metal grate beneath a window. "And many
of them are quite clever. Sitting in jail doesn't mean they're stupid - in
some respects."

In the past year, county sheriffs across the Ozarks have come to realize
the least favorite part of their job is often a part that takes up much of
their time: the jail. Headaches have included escapes, challenges from the
American Civil Liberties Union about conditions, staff shortages and
crowding, which forces authorities to farm out prisoners to other jails.

Some counties, such as Greene and Christian, have responded with new and
improved jails. Others have not. In November, Webster County voters
narrowly rejected an issue that would have replaced the county's
70-year-old courthouse with a new $8- to $10-million facility.

The problems aren't going away. Every year sheriffs find themselves
confronted with more inmates and - in tight economic times - less money.

"People think of county jails as small potatoes," Seneker said. "But
everyone who goes to the pen goes through a county jail first."

Population booming

The 2000 Census showed inmate populations climbing as much as 400 percent
in some southwest Missouri counties. Statewide, the prison population went
up 76 percent. Stone and Howell counties experienced the biggest jumps.

Webster County has seen a roughly 50 percent increase over last year, said
Chief Deputy Tom Simmons. "We're full all the time."

Inmates spend more time in jail - averaging 18.9 days in Greene County, up
from 10 days in 1997.

But few smaller counties have replaced their jails to keep pace.

When Cedar County Sheriff Aaron Spillman went to work at the department in
1987, the jail, built in 1939 and designed to safely hold a maximum of 12
inmates, was averaging two to three prisoners at any one time. Now the
county has 10 to 12, and is forced to farm out female offenders because
there's not enough room to segregate men and women.

Spillman said a surging number of drug offenders add to the problem.

"Society is in a slump as far as criminality goes," he said, "and I don't
know what it's going to take to break that chain."

Breaking away

In the past eight years, men have made it outside the Lawrence County jail
three times. A fourth try failed.

Each time, the men were later caught and Seneker had to make changes in the
14-year-old building:

.When a man kicked in a door officials thought couldn't be damaged, they
had to weld two metal bars over the door and have since ordered another door.

.When three people crawled through a ventilation system authorities thought
was built with metal bars preventing escape, officials had to install the
bars themselves.

.When inmates made it to the dispatch room by using an electric door code
they'd learned - possibly by using mirrors to watch jail staff punch in the
code - officials closed hatches on cell doors and quit using a door by
which deputies entered the building when it was raining.

In August, Seneker had enough. He contacted a division of the Department of
Justice, which does jail inspections, to look at ways to improve the jail.
He also called in an architecture firm to look into the feasibility of
renovations or a new jail.

Seneker said the inspector from the Department of Justice told him, "You
would be money ahead to bulldoze this and start from scratch."

Until then, Seneker said, more staff could increase security. Spillman
agrees, citing inadequate staff as a reason for two escapes last year. Both
times, only one person, a dispatcher also serving as a jailer, was on duty.
Spillman said neither escape would have happened if there had been more
people on duty.

"With a jailer on duty who's performing the proper bed checks and security
checks ... you still might have the possibility of one attacking the
jailer, but they're a lot less apt to do it."

Today's prisoner is more dangerous and better versed in ways to escape than
in the past, sheriffs said. Many have spent years behind bars and picked up
tricks from seasoned convicts in state penitentiaries.

Often, deteriorating county jails are no match for them. The Cedar County
Jail is an example. Spillman said its archaic design often makes it hard to
keep an eye on prisoners. "At the time I'm sure it was state-of-the art,"
he said. "But back then it handled one or two weekend drunks. Now we're
dealing with people on A and B felonies - people looking at a lot of time -
and that definitely increases your security problems."

Implications

Implications of an inadequate jail reach far and wide, from taxing
department manpower to altering the way courts sentence offenders.

Besides creating a need to run inmates back and forth to court from other
counties, crowding can pose problems when separating men and women or
keeping hardened criminals away from first-time offenders.

Lack of space can also alter the way courts sentence offenders. Larger
jails could also grant courts more flexibility to give offenders shorter
jail terms instead of probation.

"They can be sentenced in county jail for up to a year," said Christian
County Sheriff Joey Matlock, who expects the 40 prisoners the county
averages daily to double when a new 94-bed jail is finished this month. "It
hasn't happened very often, but I'd say when we move to the new one we
probably will."

Keeping too many prisoners in too tight a space can cause friction, a
danger for jailers who must often enter cells to break up arguments.

Webster County Sheriff Ron Worsham said it's a constant threat stemming
from the current jail on the third floor of the courthouse, a place Worsham
said is built more like an old drunk tank. The room is often a home to 12
prisoners at a time.

"You put all of them in there together and you have constant friction ...
You spend a lot more time dealing with them when they're that close
together than you would if they had cells when they were separated."

Battle for funds

Sheriffs often face an uphill battle when petitioning for public funds.

Although the public is often reluctant to shell out money for new jails, it
doesn't slacken the responsibility of departments that have to provide for
the well-being of inmates and staff and come up the funds to do it.

"Most people, when they think 'jail,' say how (offenders) don't need
anything fancy," said Spillman. "And of course I don't think they need
anything like a Holiday Inn, either.

"But as the county, we're responsible for the health and welfare of the
inmate and if we're negligent to that we're open to that liability, and
that's the point that we really need to get across to the general public."

That liability has been brought into question last year after an Aug. 12,
2000, suicide of a Nixa man in the jail, and with an ACLU lawsuit alleging
that the conditions in the old jail facility were inhumane. County
officials settled the lawsuit in February 2000 and improved conditions
until the new jail could be built.

Christian County finally succeeded in passing a quarter-cent sales tax, but
not before voters had turned down similar measures three times.

Cedar County passed a half-cent sales tax for law enforcement last
November, which could begin to take effect the first of the year. Spillman
hopes it's enough to provide for two full-time jailers, but with dispatch
equipment and other needs, it might be a tight squeeze.

Seneker said he benefits from a cooperative county commission, but said he
has to be strategic about asking taxpayers for money: "You can only go to
the well so many times."

Worsham said he hasn't had a chance to discuss with county leaders when the
next opportunity might roll around for a ballot measure, which lost by a
slim margin in November.

Worsham said it wasn't hard to return to work not knowing when the next
chance for a vote on a new jail might come. After all, they'd made do with
the old jail for 70 years; they could do it for a few more:

"We're going to keep doing the best we can with what we have."