CROWDED JAIL, METH ARE LINKED

Study Likely To Urge Jail Expansion

Methamphetamine is the latest factor fueling a crisis at the La Plata
County Jail, officials representing different - sometimes opposed -
aspects of the justice system said Friday.

Sheriff Duke Schirard said he was forced to send 10 of the jail's 186
inmates to the Southern Ute Detention Center - at a cost to the county
of $550 just for Friday.

"No room in the inn," the sheriff said.

A consultant hired by the county to study overcrowding told
criminal-justice officials Friday that the average stay at the jail
increased 41 percent over a decade, from 15.3 days in 1996 to 21.5
days in 2005.

"What is going on?" David Bennett asked the 25 officials lunching on
pizza at the La Plata County Courthouse.

"Methamphetamine," said Marta Martinez-Evans, program director of
Pathfinder Clinic, a nonprofit counseling agency. Then she added:
"Multiple arrests."

Schirard and Martinez-Evans represent different aspects of the system
that may sometimes be in conflict. But they and others in the room
appeared unanimous about how meth is affecting La Plata County.

"One of the main things is the meth epidemic, which of course leads to
other types of crime," Schirard said.

"Domestic violence goes up. Theft goes up. Violence in general goes
up. Spend the paycheck on meth, instead of bringing it home to the
family, and the fights start. Have to make the paycheck up, and the
thefts start."

Bennett, a national expert on jail overcrowding, noted 1,744 people
were admitted to the jail in 1996. That number is expected to hit
2,873 this year, a 65 percent increase despite diverting drunken
drivers from being booked there and allowing would-be inmates to
report in for the day and go elsewhere at night.

"For any of us to go into jail, it would not be a pleasant experience,
particularly in this jail," Bennett said. "It is not a place where you
would want to be locked up."

Other numbers: The jail's average daily population rose 132 percent,
from 73 inmates in 1996 to 169 inmates in 2005. At the same time, the
county's population increased 18 percent. The incarceration rate per
10,000 residents increased 63 percent, from 19 in 1996 to 31 in 2004.

When Bennett showed that the county's incarceration rate is outpacing
the national average, Martinez-Evans spoke up again.

"I would like to look at the numbers for the meth line that goes up
Phoenix-Albuquerque-Durango-Denver as opposed to the peripheral
areas," she said.

She was referring to a perception openly talked about in
law-enforcement circles that Durango is directly in the path of a meth
importation pipeline beginning at factories in Mexico and ending
across the Western states.

Some officials speculate privately that the county has fewer problems
with home meth labs than other counties because a much purer
manufactured version of the drug comes up this distribution pipeline,
driving out the homemade version.

"There's no question about the impact," Bennett said of meth. "We're
not on the other side of that curve yet. We're continuing to go up."

The sheriff cited other factors in the overcrowding crisis, including
legislators mandating when police must make arrests and what sentences
judges must hand down.

"Another thing," Schirard said, "is the change in the complexion of
the community from a rural cowboy culture to a more urban culture."