Undersheriff lays out rationale for new Gunnison County jail

The current jail is “obsolete by design”

The disagreement between the county and the Cattlemen’s Days Committee about the future location of the Gunnison County Criminal Justice Center has erupted in full public view. But county officials in public meetings and private conversations are staying the course. They want to proceed with plans to build a justice facility next to the fairgrounds and they want to break ground next year.

But the county commissioners aren’t resisting calls for the location to be moved because they are calloused toward the future of Cattlemen’s Days or because they like the controversy. The County, by statute, doesn’t have any other reasonable alternative.
Referring to the decision to locate the planned facility on a county-owned parcel near the county fairgrounds, county manager Matthew Birnie said, “That’s what my board voted on and that’s the direction we’re taking.”
The calls to improve conditions at the jail are a familiar refrain. Gunnison County Undersheriff Rick Besecker said that the jail was recognized as being substandard in the early 1980s by then-Sheriff George Kennedy just a few years after the current jail facility was constructed in 1979.
“[The jail] was obsolete by design at the time,” Besecker said. “The previous jail was extremely old and below standard, so any improvement was a vast improvement, but it wasn’t the ultimate improvement.”
Kennedy told the county commissioners that their new jail needed upgrades, but his concerns fell on deaf ears, Besecker said, “which is not surprising, since they had just built a new jail and no one was anxious to hear about deficiencies.”
Thirty years later, the jail is in really rough shape and failing to meet the standards laid out by the American Corrections Association. Undersheriff Besecker said regulation agencies could look at “any area, any issue, any subject,” and find deficiencies.
“Fortunately we’ve been able to take up the distance of those deficiencies with good people to run the jail,” Besecker said.
Getting a jail to match the quality of the sheriff’s employees at the jail has been on Sheriff Rick Murdie’s mind a long time. This is Murdie’s 24th year on the job and Besecker said he has been advocating for a new jail for his entire tenure.
Part of making progress on that front has been showing the policymakers in the county what it’s like to work in those conditions. While taking the Board of County Commissioners on a tour of the current jail Tuesday, January 19, a sheriff’s deputy explained to the commissioners how a motivated inmate could break out of the facility in five or six moves.
Over the years, a couple of inmates have failed to escape but five have been completely successful in breaking out.
On the day the commissioners visited, the jail population was small and many of the cells were empty. They first walked past the desk where inmates are checked in and out of the facility.
As one of the first things a visitor sees when entering the jail, this is the first indication that the check processing area is sorely out of place.
“Presently our book-in area is in the center of all traffic, whether you’re bringing inmates out or booking them in. It’s all in an open area in the center of the jail and that is absolutely no good. Good sense lends itself to an isolated control area that is accessible by going through certain means,” Besecker said.
In addition to the most glaring deficiencies at the jail, like a lack of space and only the most basic means of monitoring prisoners, there are structural problems. Sections of the plumbing are encased in concrete, so a simple leak can turn into a major project.
“The jail is currently designed in such a way that acoustics carry sound from the book-in area through plumbing, and officers can be talking about issues about safety or medication and it can be listened to—even private conversations,” Besecker said.
The razor wire that lines the recreation yard at the jail has been broken by inmates to make shanks, or improvised knives. Although Besecker said they have never had an incident with a shank, the location of the razor wire makes it a possibility. The lines of sight in the jail make it hard for deputies to watch inmates as the officers move through the facility and see around corners—and deputy safety, as well as inmate safety, is a constant concern for Besecker.
Each year, the jail is inspected and audited by the state and federal governments. Each time the results show a massive need for a new facility.
“It puts us at risk. It puts the inmates and employees in potential danger and places a tremendous amount of liability on the county’s shoulders,” he said.
In the years since the jail was built, the jail’s clientele has changed and the facility has failed to keep pace.
“Through the years the population changes and they fluctuate. The clientele is a little bit different now,” Besecker said. “Now we have people that are undocumented, so the complexion changes a little bit and we need to be able to respond to that change.”
So to accommodate that change and all of the deficiencies at the jail, the county has put aside around $3 million to get the $15 million project started. Members of the Cattlemen’s Days committee have been placed on the facility’s master planning committee to give a broader perspective as the new detention center goes through the planning process.
According to Birnie, “The board is hoping to get the projects moving so the county can take advantage of the Build America bonds and get some money flowing into the community as soon as they can.”
The county has also approached a firm about overseeing the construction and hired counsel to help with a financing package that could include one or several bonding options. The money the county has already put aside for the project came from sales tax, which is dedicated to capital improvement projects. The bonds will be paid back in the same way.
The county hopes to break ground on the jail in 2011, a year ahead of the construction schedule recommended in the strategic plan.