A proposal to expand the Flathead County Detention Center into the soon-to-be vacated county attorney’s office could allow the jail to hold 36 more inmates, according to Sheriff Chuck Curry.
Meanwhile, Flathead County plans on forming a committee in the coming weeks to study long-term solutions to the county’s jail crowding, including the construction of a new facility.
Curry said the plan to expand the current jail, which is being studied by an architect at the request of the Flathead County Commission, is “a necessary short-term solution, but it’s not a long-term solution.” The current jail was built in the 1980s to hold about 60 inmates, but today it often houses more than 100 adults each night. On June 6, there were 125 people incarcerated at the detention center.
Expanding the jail into the current county attorney’s office, which is moving to a new space across the street, would add about 3,500 square feet to the jail, said county administrator Mike Pence. He said the architect looking at the expansion is expected to complete the jail study in the next two to three weeks and, at that point, it will be presented to the commission for approval. Pence and Curry said they did not know how much the expansion might cost.
Curry said the planning committee will look at how to design a new jail and how to fund it and get approval from the public. Recently, Curry, Pence, Commissioner Pam Holmquist and Jail Commander Jenny Root traveled to Denver for a conference hosted by the National Institute of Corrections about jail planning.
“There is a lot that goes into these projects,” Curry said.
The sheriff added that building and opening of a new jail was still four or five years away.
Flathead County’s jail crowding came to a head last year when the detention center began holding more than 100 inmates every day. The county was in negotiations with the owner of the old WalMart in Evergreen in hopes of turning that into a jail, but that deal ultimately fell through.
Late last year, the county moved its juvenile inmates to Missoula and put female inmates in the old youth facility. That also proved to be a short-term solution. At the time, the county was averaging 12 female inmates, which is what the refurbished juvenile facility could handle. Last month there were two dozen female inmates, meaning half had to be kept in the main jail separated from the male population.