Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 Source: Oklahoman, The (OK) Copyright: 2002 The Oklahoma Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.oklahoman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318 Author: Justin Juozapavicious, Associated Press Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) TWO-THIRDS OF JAILS FAIL STATE INSPECTIONS Alternating head to toe, sleeping prisoners line the floor of the Pottawatomie County jail holding cells, rusted enclosures where up to 80 inmates try to live in a space built for 35. On the walls, dank grime competes with chipped, off-white paint for exposure and plastic box fans around the holding pens blow a mixture of musty air, cigarette smoke and the smell of urine throughout the facility. "The conditions in here are deplorable," said Pottawatomie County Sheriff Kurt Shirey. The jail was among 49 across the state that failed inspection last year by the Oklahoma Health Department. Twenty-eight jails passed. Shirey moved the prisoners to the city jail in Shawnee so repairs could be made to the building. But officials had to move the inmates back to the county facility April 19 when state inspectors closed the city jail because of understaffing, no fire alarm system and a shortage of smoke detectors. Health Department inspectors cited two-thirds of Oklahoma's county jails last year for a variety of deficiencies such as crowding, a lack of personnel to monitor inmates, construction problems and poor health care. Oklahoma jails have become the wreckage from a collision between increasing inmate populations and dwindling county budgets. An Associated Press survey of county jails found that there were 7,427 inmates confined in the state's jails in May 2002. The U.S. Department of Justice counted 6,743 inmates confined in a 1999 jail census. Jail administrators and sheriffs in 49 of Oklahoma's 77 counties reported significant overcrowding problems in an AP survey this year. Health Department inspections last year found that nearly one-third of the state's jails were crowded. According to the inspections: 42 percent of Oklahoma's jails lack enough staff and equipment to properly monitor inmates. 36 percent of jails have been cited for structural decay. 35 percent of jails were cited for improper sanitary practices and health code violations. Sheriffs have tried for years to patch the jails and maintain funding to keep key staff, but budget cuts prevail in many counties. "In Oklahoma, jails outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, most of the facilities are mom-and-pop places," said Ken Kerle, a national jail consultant and managing editor of American Jails magazine. Kerle has toured more than 700 jails in 49 states, including Oklahoma. "They say they don't have anybody on the midnight shift, but say the night patrolman stops by and makes sure no one's hanging themselves." In Logan County, inmates exploited the failing structure in April by smashing through an air-conditioning duct and climbing to freedom over a razor-wire fence. A similar escape happened in April 2000, officials said. On a busy weekend, the jail building, which is more than 100 years old, holds up to 80 inmates in two dormitory-style cells designed to house 15 to 20. "With the jail being so old, it doesn't take much for an inmate to dig a brick out of the interior walls," Logan County Sheriff Randy Richardson said. "The prisoners have 24-7 to do something like that back there." According to a U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of national inmate populations, the nation's jails held 631,240 inmates in 2001, up 10,091 from midyear 2000. "Jails have traditionally been overcrowded, that's nothing new," said Darrell L. Ross, chairman of the criminal justice program at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. "To me, the problem comes out of the courts. It's the 'if you build them, they'll come' syndrome. "It doesn't matter if this is Oklahoma or New England. When we build a new jail, a judge realizes he's got bed space and puts the guy there rather than maybe giving him probation." Tough-on-crime initiatives have increased the inmate population in the nation's prisons and jails, said Stephen Ingley, executive director of the American Jail Association in Hagerstown, Md. "When the war on drugs and truth-in-sentencing bills started, the numbers jumped enormously," Ingley said. Truth-in-sentencing requires violent offenders to serve 80 percent of their prison terms. Debi Bohannan, an activist with the Jail Action Issues League in Norman, said tough-on-crime laws lack a standard of accountability. "Robert Downey Jr. gets probation, but some poor kid in Oklahoma gets stuck languishing in a hellhole jail before receiving a sentence -- all so you can pound your chest and say you're tough on crime," Bohannan said. Twenty-five counties in Oklahoma have either built new jails or are in the process of building or planning for them, and officials say that is a hopeful sign. Don Garrison, director of the state Health Department's jail inspection division, said that it may be difficult to find the money to staff these new jails, but he is optimistic that conditions for inmates will improve. "I think we've created an atmosphere of change for Oklahoma's jails," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake