JAILS HAVE FEAST OR FAMINE PROBLEM

While some Wisconsin counties have the "room for rent" sign out on their
jails, others such as Dane, Sauk and Juneau counties are scrambling to find
beds to relieve crowding.

Nearly half of the state's 72 counties have some kind of jail expansion
program under way or on the drawing boards because of overcrowding situations.

Meanwhile, several counties that recently completed jail-building projects
find themselves with open beds and fewer customers.

Dodge County, which opened its 358-bed jail in January, had empty cells
throughout most of the summer and had to lay off 11 jail personnel.

The problem, according to Dodge County Sheriff Steve Fitzgerald, was that
the state didn't send prisoners it promised, choosing to ship them out of
state where the rate was nearly $20 less per day. That caused problems for
Fitzgerald and other sheriffs opening new jail cells who anticipated
renting the empty ones to the state.

Dodge County has since taken in 75 inmates from state and federal prisons
and has returned its laid-off jailers to work. Fitzgerald, however, is
still upset with the way the counties are being treated by the state.

He and other sheriffs negotiated with the state Department of Corrections
(DOC), agreeing to reduce rates for state inmates from $60 to $52 per day.
They claim that in those negotiations they were promised some of the 4,000
state inmates the DOC has moved into jails in Tennessee, Oklahoma and
Minnesota - but those prisoners were never returned to Wisconsin. The state
pays $44 a day for each inmate in those out-of-state jails.

DOC Spokesman Bill Clausius claims the state never made such a promise
because it has out-of-state contracts to uphold. Clausius said the state is
housing some 265 prisoners in county jails including 50 in Dodge County
despite what he calls a budget crunch that eliminated funding for county
jail beds.

Fitzgerald, along with Sauk County Sheriff Randy Stammen and Juneau County
Sheriff Brent Oleson, defend their jail expansions, saying they are not
being built for outside inmates in the long term.

"We are not building our jail to house other prisoners but to meet our own
needs," Stammen said. He said his 350-bed jail now under construction will
relieve present overcrowding, which sees 135 inmates stuffed into a 126-bed
jail.

But Stammen, like the others who will have temporary space available, said
he would be willing to look at renting to the state and any other county
that needs a bed.

Juneau Sheriff Oleson, who is sending 29 inmates to other jails, said he
will gladly reciprocate when his 156-bed jail is completed next September.
He, too, is critical of the state sending inmates out of state. "For the $4
or $5 less that they will pay, they could be helping out the jails in
Wisconsin and keeping tax dollars at home," Oleson said.

"Too much space is not our problem," said Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin.
He said that on Monday there were 1,054 inmates at the jail, which has a
capacity of 942.

During jail peak times in the spring and fall, Dane County ships about 20
inmates to Dodge County, at a cost of $60 a day per inmate. That doesn't
include transporting them.

Hamblin isn't surprised that many new jails aren't full. He said that's
good planning.

"They had enough foresight to build for the future," Hamblin said. "You
don't want a new jail to open to capacity."

Hamblin wants to add three floors at a cost of about $30 million to the
existing Public Safety Building, which opened in 1994. But County Executive
Kathleen Falk would rather build a jail alternative, such as a 300-bed
facility designed for treatment of inmates suffering from drug and alcohol
abuse.

On Thursday, the Dane County Board is expected to vote to either add floors
or create a jail alternative. Some County Board members think they can come
to a compromise.

Sharyn Wisniewski, Falk's executive assistant, said the news of vacant jail
space in other counties is fodder for Dane County not to add onto its jail.

"It's one more reason not to jump into building jail beds," Wisniewski
said. "We know there is a problem with overcrowding. We're looking for a
reasonable solution."

In the meantime, Hamblin says, "We'll continue to ship people to other
counties and help them pay for their jails."