Mission: New jail for Williams County

By Crysta Parkinson, News Editor

Getting a new jail built for Williams County has become a mission for Sheriff Scott Busching. It isn't about leaving a legacy. It's about doing his job.

“The thing that really scares me,” Busching said, “is that an inspector or judge is going to come along and say ‘close her up,' because we're not meeting standards. Then where would we be?”

Busching said he recognizes the risks in pursuing such an expensive project when he will be up for election next November, but “I can't think about that, I have to do what's right,” he said. On the third floor of the Williams County Courthouse, the jail was built in 1953. Throughout the building, exposed plumbing and wiring greets visitors. There is no air conditioning, so the air is heavy and hot, even on a cool November day. Air handling capabilities are limited, which leads to more than just heat. When one inmate gets sick, everyone gets it, Correctional Officer Toni Stundal explained, calling the conditions “deplorable.”

The building is grandfathered against a list of building regulations, Busching explained. Renovations are out of the question. “But we can't so much as turn a bolt,” because any changes made would void that and send the county down a long list of required “fixes.”

Once buzzed into the jail from the third floor of the courthouse, a short hallway serves as booking space. A shelf juts out of the wall for fingerprinting, and the wall is marked for photographing mug shots.

A few more steps down the hall lead to the processing window, and the only office space in the jail, which consists of a small control room stuffed with filing cabinets and television screens, and a hallway that leads to the courtrooms, where a desk and more filing cabinets have been set up.

“We have huge space issues here,” Busching said.

Plans for the new jail would include a glass-lined control room in the center of the jail, allowing staff members to see activity in all of the cells, which would also be monitored with video surveillance. As it stands now, the television monitors are the only link to the jail population.

Through another set of doors is a sort of all-purpose room, with lockers lining one wall for inmates' personal belongings, a shower for decontamination and access to food service and laundry. The “food service area” looks more like a janitor's closet, with barely enough room to turn around in a space that includes a sink, dish drainer and small counter. Food is brought up from the cafe on steam trays, then transferred into dishes by jail staff in the room.

Laundry service includes one washer and one drier to keep up with the laundry for as many as 37 inmates.

“Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking people in jail need a really nice place,” Busching said. But inmates do have rights, and the current jail is not meeting them. In addition, a major problem with the facility as it stands has been discipline and control. “You have to have something to take away, or there's no reason to follow the rules,” Busching said. Considering the inmates have less than they should have by law now, that is a difficult thing to do.

The Williams County Jail has a maximum population of 37 inmates, but at times can hold less than that, due to restraints with required divisions of populations. The facility is often full to capacity and beyond.

The jail population must be divided into four different areas, including those awaiting sentencing or arraignment, those serving sentences, women and isolation. At times the isolation cells have been used as regular holding cells, but that creates its own set of problems, Busching said. If there are inmates in the isolation cells who shouldn't be, those cells are not available if they are actually needed.

Men serving out their sentences are crammed into two cells on the south side of the building, both often full. Eight men sleep in a space approximately 8 feet wide by 15 feet long, a sharp contrast to the 20 square feet per inmate required by law.

The women's cell contains four bunks, and has housed as many as nine women at a time. When there are more women then there are beds, thin blue mattresses are brought in so floor space can be utilized for sleeping.

The women's cell is completely enclosed, with heavy doors and walls on three sides, and the bars covered loosely with a sheet to provide privacy from male inmates, because they are adjacent to the stairs leading to the recreation area.

Women are the biggest problem right now, not just locally, but on a state and national level, Busching said. Statistics show the female population of jails is sky rocketing.

“You get four women in a six-person cell, tensions are high,” Stundal said.

To help eradicate some tensions, a recreation area was added on the roof of the courthouse in 1984, when a supreme court decision required one hour of outdoor time each day for inmates. There is a small indoor space, as well as the domed basketball court viewable from the street and parking lot.

Busching said there have been two escape attempts from the area since he has been sheriff, and there have, at times, been issues with neighbors.

Three television cameras outside and one inside, along with audio equipment, monitor the prisoners on the roof, and every effort is made to remove them immediately if there is yelling or other inappropriate behavior directed at people below.

But the system is older, and it takes a keen eye to spot the issues. “You pretty much have to know what you're looking at,” said Correctional Officer Rudy Radovich.

The new facility will include an indoor recreation area with a screened wall that would open to allow outdoor time without contact with the outside world, Busching said.

Busching commends his staff for their efforts to do the best they can with the facility available to them. “These people work very hard to make those folks as comfortable as possible in the conditions they're in,” he said. “These are probably the hardest working and lowest paid people in law enforcement in our county right now.”

Correctional Officer Toni Stundal has been working for the jail for 26 years, the child of “a whole family in law enforcement.” Her father was the former jail supervisor. Over her time at the facility, she has seen a lot change.

“The worst thing is the inmates, and how they've changed, they don't have any respect,” Stundal said.

Another issue she has seen with the small amount of space available is a product of the drug culture, where people have a tendency of “ratting each other out.” She said there have been numerous instances where a new person has come in, and during the intake the staff finds out they can't be placed together with other inmates who are already in the jail. This creates an impossible situation of juggling inmates in order to try to protect everyone.

A number of studies across the country and locally have shown a growing trend toward higher jail populations, something the current facility just can't keep up with. One study said the population of the Williams County Jail would average 75 people by 2017, a trend being illustrated in other North Dakota towns already.

Minot, for example, built a 100 bed facility in 1984. “We all wondered what they were doing,” Busching said, but now the jail is filled to capacity, and another building project is likely on the horizon in order to keep up.

With rising jail costs, it has also been noted that the Williams County Jail will likely be the only jail this side of Dickinson in another 15 years. “These small towns just can't keep up with the costs,” Busching said.

Space is a huge issue, one of the biggest. “We're required to provide 20 square feet per man, and we're not meeting that,” Busching said.

“I need cell space, I don't care what it is,” Busching said. Currently the facility is not meeting the requirements of a list of agencies and acts, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), safety concerns and more.

When the jail fills up, options are extremely limited. An overcrowded jail has forced law enforcement and the State's Attorney in Williston into a dangerous Friday afternoon routine, which includes prioritizing inmates incarcerated to the Williams County Jail, and letting people out to make space for “weekenders.”

Places to bring overflow inmates are next to non-existent, Busching said. People have been taken to McKenzie County at times when there was space. Minot and Dickinson are both full, and will no longer take prisoners.

Space issues also affect the way law enforcement and judges in the county do their jobs. Before a deputy or police officer goes into a situation where someone might need to be arrested, they are finding out whether or not there is space in the jail. This leads to people, who might otherwise be arrested for their behavior, walking free.

“It makes a big difference” in how officers approach a situation, Busching said. The lack of proper jail facilities takes away an important tool in their arsenal.

In addition, trends in the judicial system are affected, as well. A look through the court reports shows that more and more people are getting suspended sentences, and then additional suspended sentences when the first suspension is revoked.

Crowded jails also make for more difficult jail populations, the correctional officers explained. “When it gets crowded, they get irritable, which makes them more difficult to deal with,” Radovich said.

“When it rains, one of the main jobs here is to run for the buckets,” Stundal said. The roof has leaked for so many years, Busching said, he's afraid to find out what sort of mold issues might be hiding below the surface of the walls.

The water issue has caused more than just a few leaky roofs, though. The jail has been blamed for a million dollar renovation approved this year for the second floor of the courthouse, the result of flooding as a result of an inmate flushing bed sheets down a toilet.

“If the plumbing would have been working...it wouldn't have happened,” Busching said. Water has also fried cameras in the facility, ruined documents and caused other damages.

In the past, the Williams County Jail was able to offer programs, such as offering GED classes to inmates who had not earned a high school diploma, pre-treatment options through Mercy Recovery Center and the Human Resource Council, and other options like AA meetings. Space for those services has gone from limited to plain unavailable, Busching said.

The new jail plans would include special areas for these sorts of programs, Busching noted.

Security has also been an issue, one Busching hopes to make great strides in with the new facility. Sally ports - secure parking areas - would be included downstairs, to allow inmates to be transported from the sheriff or police car to the jail would be installed, minimizing chances to run or be in contact with the community. Busching said there have been numerous instances where someone has run in between the back door and the car.

More and more security is needed than was necessary 52 years ago when the jail was built, especially considering new problems law enforcement are dealing with. The unpredictability of today's criminal adds a whole new area of concern. “Now we're getting people who have been taking meth for a long time, and you just don't know what they might do,” he said.

Minimizing movement and opportunity is a key to a more safe and secure facility, Busching said.

The proposed new jail would offer facilities for medical care on scene, as well. Medical costs are increasingly a huge problem for the jail facility, especially with more and more inmates who have drug problems, Busching said.

While a person is incarcerated in the jail, the facility is responsible for all of their medical care and associated costs.

“They are a lot sicker than they used to be,” Busching said.

Sheriff Busching said over the course of his time running the facility, he has paid for services ranging from child birth and surgery to any number of prescription medications - at times as many as eight or 11.

Having the ability to contract with an outside agency to provide medical staff on scene at the jail could result in a lot of cost saving, Busching said. At very least, it would save on transfers and deputy time required to stay with the patient while they are at the doctor or hospital.

Mental health evaluations, which currently need to be sent to Jamestown, might also be available in-house if facilities are available.