Commissioners agree that something has to be done about the Freeborn County Jail, and a study conducted by the Federal Department of Corrections (DOC) will help them determine what to do.

Monday, June 18, 2001

Commissioners agree that something has to be done about the Freeborn County Jail, and a study conducted by the Federal Department of Corrections (DOC) will help them determine what to do.

The county will ask a DOC consultant to evaluate the current court and jail operations and estimate future jail needs. They will recommend modifications and estimate costs at no charge to the county, said Tim Thompson, detention facility inspector of the Inspection and Enforcement Unit, Minnesota DOC.

The average daily population of the 46-bed facility has doubled in the last six years, said Sheriff Don Nolander. The jail is overcrowded and inadequate, Nolander said, estimating that between 30 and 40 people are on a waiting list to serve jail time.

&uot;You’ve got people on the streets that are supposed to be doing jail time and they’re not,&uot; Thompson said. &uot;What kind of message does that send them?&uot;

The jail is routinely run at nearly 100 percent capacity, but Thompson said it should be run at about 65 percent full to allow for maintenance, separation of inmates and security precautions.

&uot;There’s a misconception about (inmates) being in a higher level of security of what they’re actually in,&uot; he said. &uot;Without direct supervision, which is what you have now, they could be yelling and escalating and getting loud, even getting into a fight, and you wouldn’t know about it until you came in to do your rounds.&uot;

&uot;At some point, you have a safety factor, which we all know has already become an issue,&uot; he said. &uot;Part of that is a design flaw with the linear design. It gives them too much idle time, the opportunity when they’re not being monitored when they can get into trouble.&uot;

Three inmates escaped from the jail last summer, only to be recaptured, and another man is now on trial, accused of attacking and injuring two guards in an escape attempt last August.

Making matters worse for the jail, proposed egislation like a DWI bill could boost future jail populations beyond current projections, Thompson said.