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| Mont. County Agrees to Spend $10,000 on Jail Plan to Keep ACLU at Bay |
| By Bozeman Daily Chronicle |
| Published: 03/18/2003 |
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Gallatin County commissioners have agreed to spend money on the jail to keep a civil liberties group from suing for inhumane inmate conditions. Commissioners decided February 26 to pay Prugh & Lenon Architects PC up to $10,000 to draft a plan to fix up the jail, including upgrades to the ventilation system, roof and medical room. The plan will be part of the county's effort to prevent the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana from carrying out its threat to sue the county for cruel and unusual punishment because of jail conditions. 'How much is it going to cost to keep us out of court and maintain our local control? That's the bottom line,' Commissioner John Vincent said. 'The tough part will be when everybody realizes how much money it will cost to do that.' He joined Commissioner Bill Murdock in voting to spend the money. Commissioner Jennifer Smith Mitchell was at a youth jail meeting in Butte. Neither Murdock nor Vincent were enthused about having to spend on the old jail. It's money that would be much better spent on building a new jail, they said. 'I think it's pouring money down a dry hole,' Murdock said. 'However, we have no choice.' Prugh & Lenon has been instructed to come up with an estimate of the cost of the improvements. The contract also requests an estimate of the cost of a separate, modular building for use as a medical clinic for inmates. The Bozeman architectural firm has 30 days to submit its plan and cost estimate. The ACLU has given the county until early March to have a plan in place. Commissioners are desperately trying to appease the ACLU and keep it from suing. In other counties where the ACLU has sued over inadequate jails, federal judges have stepped in and ordered a new jail built, taking away all local say in the size or price. County Attorney Marty Lambert said he hoped ACLU Legal Director Beth Brenneman would work with the county officials to give them time to craft a plan. He said the group has been patient with the county in the past after seeing efforts to better jail conditions. 'That's kept us off of their radar screen,' Lambert said. 'Now that we're on their radar screen, I'd like to think that they would sit down with us.' Murdock predicted the county will have to spend several million dollars to fix the jail's problems in coming years. The county has $400,000 set aside to design a new jail that it could use for jail improvements, but half of that money was budgeted for an assessment of the justice system. If jail improvements cost more than $200,000, the county can borrow up to $1 million from the state without voter approval, Murdock said. Money for repairs that cost more than that will have to be squeezed out of the county budget, he said. 'The rest of it we'll just have to cobble together,' he said. 'We're going to have the cost of the new jail and the cost of these repairs, that's what frustrates me.' |
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