Aclu: Jail Crowding A Problem

An American Civil Liberties Union attorney has concluded it will take a miracle to adequately address problems caused by overcrowding at the Bonneville County Jail.

And while he praised the sheriff’s department for doing what it can, Stephen Pevar said after touring the jail that a “superhuman effort” will be required to make the improvements needed to avoid a lawsuit.

“I feel confident some changes have to be made,” Pevar said, but called legal action a “last resort.”

The jail’s capacity is 49 inmates, and 72 prisoners were being held last Friday. Bonneville County is building a 280-bed, $7.4 million jail, but it will not be completed until 1998.

The ACLU has been monitoring conditions at the jail for five years, and Pevar said Sheriff Byron Stommel’s staff has succeeded in keeping the situation from turning into a powder keg.

But even though most inmates he talked to praised jail personnel, Pevar received letters from about 45 prisoners outlining complaints about problems that result from overcrowding.

Stommel said there is no money to return to the practice of shipping as many as half the jail population to other counties. The county retrieved its prisoners in an effort to save $700,000 in the current budget year.

The sheriff’s department also hired six additional corrections officers to handle the jail three months ago, and decided to keep the recreation yard open to prisoners during the winter with coats provided by the jail.