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Lake County Jail delays detention for non-violent offenders due to lack of space
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Go to jail. Go directly to jail. While the directions are easy to follow on a Monopoly board, they just won’t work with the Lake County Jail.
In a supply-and-demand detention economy, the demand outweighs the supply with about 1,000 people on a list waiting to serve their time, and a jail with a capacity of 42.
The Lake County Jail houses male and female prisoners and serves as a non-overnight holding facility for the occasional juvenile. Prisoners bound for the Department of Corrections or the Montana Prison System also are provided short-term accommodations.
“The jail is full 99 percent of the time,” Detention Sergeant Lonnie Erickson said, characterizing it as a revolving door.
Located in the basement of the Lake County Courthouse, the Lake County Jail is under the supervision of Detention Captain Luc Mathias and his two detention sergeants, Erickson and Ken Maughan. A full crew at the detention center is 20 people, but right now there are 16 employees, all well-trained.
Detention officers attend the Law Enforcement Academy for four weeks, keep an up to date CPR card and train a minimum of two hours each month.
“The one thing I’ve seen over the years is that detention officer has become a profession,” Erickson said. “We’re proud of what we do. Lake County should be proud of the job we do to save litigation.”
The Lake County Jail is a temporary facility, Mathias said, no one can be in the jail for more than a year. A person may be sentenced from two days to a year, but the average stay is three months.
People who have been sentenced to the Lake County Jail for non-violent crimes are given a future date to serve their time, when there will be room in the jail. It’s called future detention.
On Friday and Saturday nights, high traffic time at the jail, no future detentions are accepted. The detention center must also reserve room to house a violent criminal if the need arises. Violent crimes include partner or family member abuse, murder or rape.
As their scheduled date creeps closer, people who need to serve future detentions are responsible for calling the jail each day and checking in. Detention officers keep a logbook of calls to confirm calls were made, and they include information such as from what court the person was sentenced.
Very rarely does a person not show up at the Lake County Jail when he or she is slated to serve time.
A 15-year veteran, Erickson said he could remember maybe once is his whole career when a future detention failed to show.
One change underway to help with the bottleneck of people waiting to serve time is the community service program. According to Mathias, the detention staff, the Sheriff’s Office and the judges are all on board. The program needs only a few finishing touches to be ready to go. Mathias added that people who sign up for community service can’t be felons and must be non-violent, such as a person sentenced to jail for a traffic offense.
Currently when a person sentenced to jail time comes in to serve their time, they have already been advised what they can and cannot bring to the detention facility. First, a person presents ID, then they are patted down and put into a holding cell. Then booking procedure begins with fingerprinting and photographs. Each prisoner is issued two cups and a spork for mealtimes.
Erickson explained that an important part of being a detention officer is respecting the prisoner.
“The prisoners are well taken care of, we don’t get complaints,” he said.
Prisoners see a doctor for any medical reason, from a headache to a request for vitamins or for more serious medical issues. The jail also has an on-call psychologist.
On Wednesday and Thursday, court days, detention officers escort prisoners to the courtroom in an orange and white striped jumpsuit, belly chains and handcuffs. There are a minimum of two or three officers in the courtroom; high profile cases may require stricter, more stringent security, Erickson noted.
Tuesday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. are visiting hours for family and friends of folks in jail.
If Erickson could design the perfect system, he said he would like to see a new justice center housing all the courts, probation offices, the Montana Highway Patrol office and the state agencies with a new 150-bed detention facility in the middle.
“A new jail would be the cat’s meow,” Erickson said.
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series on the jail, detention officers, people waiting to serve time and the county’s plans for the future.)
