SHERIFFS: JAILS OVERFLOWING

Authorities Blame Increase In Drug Arrests For Lack Of Sufficient Space

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. - County jails in Southwest Missouri are straining under
the growing number of people being arrested for drug crimes, authorities say.

Some area jails are bulging at the seams, and county sheriffs are left
scrambling for bed space to house inmates.

In Lawrence County, the crowding has forced officials to seek the help of
other counties, costing thousands in local tax dollars.

Sheriff Doug Seneker said the county jail, built in 1986, was designed for
a maximum capacity of 26 prisoners but can hold as many as 40 when
mattresses are placed on the floor. But throughout most of 2002, the county
had far more than 40 prisoners in custody, Seneker said.

Lawrence County paid other counties as much as $45 a day to house some of
its prisoners.

Seneker said that the county had to find space for as many as 64 inmates on
two days last year, and that having 45 to 50 inmates was commonplace
throughout the year.

"There were two months last year where we spent more money housing
prisoners outside the county than we did housing them inside the county,"
Seneker said. "Even when we were putting out cots and putting mattresses on
the floor, we were still having to farm prisoners out."

Rodney Barnes, a Lawrence County commissioner, said the Sheriff's
Department budgeted $4,600 to house prisoners outside the county in 2002
but actually spent $46,000. That was a major reason why the department
exceeded its budget last year, he said.

"The high number of prisoners this (past) year just ate our lunch," Barnes
said. "We were not really in trouble until this year, but we really got hit."

Sheriff's Lt. Dean Lyons said the closest jail that can routinely take
extra prisoners is the Christian County Jail in Ozark, a round trip of 91
miles.

"Not only are we housing prisoners outside the county at high cost, we have
to pay officers to transport them every time they have court," Lyons said.
"You have the salaries of the officers, and the wear and tear on the cars."

Seneker said the region's methamphetamine problem has been a major reason
for the rise in the number of people being arrested for drug crimes the
past few years.

"When the new jail was finished, we walked four guys across the street from
the old jail," he said. "That was a low population and we filled that old
jail, but that only happened occasionally.

"Methamphetamine certainly has had a significant role in the increase in
the number of people we've been arresting. We're not just arresting them
for drugs, but we're arresting them for so-called conventional crimes, like
burglary and stealing, where they are stealing to support their drug use."

Old jail purchased

In July 2002, Lawrence County paid $78,000 to a bail-bonding company to buy
the old 1878 jail back. In September, detectives and some other sheriff's
employees moved into refurbished offices in the old jail, freeing up space
in the current jail for prisoners.

Lyons said jail employees and inmate trusties are remodeling the offices to
make room for an additional 10 to 12 beds. He said the county hopes to have
the new beds ready sometime in February.

Seneker said it's a short-term solution at best.

"We'll pay off the purchase of the old jail in six months with the money
we'll save from not having to house those 12 prisoners in other counties,"
Seneker said. "This is a temporary fix - it will help for a couple of years
- - but Lawrence County needs a new jail."

Lyons said plans have been drawn up to expand the jail to as many as 191
beds, but that would cost between $5 million and $7 million, he said. He
said the plans include construction of a basement under the jail and more
cells in a new pod.

Barnes said any major addition to the jail is years away.

"We've made the purchase of the old jail, and I'll defend that decision as
a good move that will pay dividends," he said. "For now, we want to see
what happens in the next few years. We have to fill up the space we've got
before we go to the people for anything like an expanded jail."

Other counties

The problem is not confined to Lawrence County.

Voters in Cherokee County, Kan., approved a half-cent sales tax in November
to pay for a $5.6 million, 84-bed jail to replace the 25-bed county jail on
the top floor of the courthouse in Columbus.

Cherokee County Sheriff Bob Creech said his department is spending more
than $300,000 a year to house prisoners in other counties.

"Eighty-four beds will be enough to last the next 10 or 15 years," he said.
"Hopefully, we can get ours paid off in part, like Crawford County, by
housing prisoners from other counties and taking in some of that money
we've been spending outside our county."

In Newton County, Sheriff Ron Doerge said the jail is routinely seeing
daily inmate counts of 100 in a jail built six years ago to house 64.

"We have a lot of people sleeping on the floor," Doerge said. "We will
continue to house them on the floor as long as we can, but eventually we'll
have to start farming them out to other counties."

Doerge said authorities underestimated the impact of drugs on jail
populations when planning construction of new jails in recent years.

"We were thinking we'd reach capacity in about eight or 10 years," Doerge
said. "We had no idea we'd exceed capacity in about six years. All crime is
up. Arrests were up 43 percent in one year last year."

A spokesman for the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department in Miami, Okla.,
said the county does not face overcrowding at present in the jail built in
1997.

"Sometimes we run close to capacity, but we haven't had a problem
recently," said sheriff's Capt. Bob Ernst. "Our jail has a capacity of 137,
and we're housing 90 right now."

Ernst said Ottawa County sometimes houses prisoners for other counties as a
favor, but it rarely charges those counties for it.

"We don't take groups of prisoners from other counties," he said.
"Occasionally, we'll take problem prisoners that need to be segregated."
Robert Evenson, McDonald County sheriff, said the county jail sometimes
runs close to its capacity of 32 prisoners. He said he makes arrangements
with surrounding counties when that happens.

"We don't have to farm people out often," Evenson said. "We can hold as
many as 45, if we have to. We have an agreement with Barry County that if
we have an inmate we need segregated, we'll trade prisoners. They'll help
us out when we're overcrowded, and we'll do the same thing for them if
necessary."