If Blaine County's deplorably antiquated and wholly unfit jail is a symbol of yesterday's law enforcement tools, imagine the outrage of residents if Sheriff Walt Femling's deputies were forced to continue driving 1970s patrol cars without modern electronic hookups to dispatchers.
Disgraceful, would be the consensus community criticism, plus an immediate cry for new tools.
But Femling is still required by taxpayers to use a jail of 1970s vintage with old technology that is expected to cope with 2006 and beyond criminals and suspects.
Femling has given his best effort to build a new jail for growing Blaine County as well as meeting the more demanding requirements imposed by court rulings on how to house and treat prisoners.
But taxpayers have turned down several bond issues to build a new facility. Then, recently, a district court judge outlawed a Blaine County method of retiring a bond issue with budget savings. More recently, the County Commission nixed a special sales tax as a financing vehicle.
Bank on this: There is no free way to have a new jail.
So, unless Blaine County is bequeathed a Powerball jackpot, it's probably back to the pure and simple bond issue method of building a new jail.
The jail is too small. Femling regularly sends prisoners to other counties for holding. It's indescribably unfit. Separating male and female and juvenile prisoners is a constant challenge. It's archaic. No worthwhile facilities exist for special counseling services.
When overcrowding occurs, taxpayers are stuck with the high expense of transporting prisoners back and forth from other counties' facilities for court hearings and trial.
Aesthetically, the jail also gives new meaning to the word "eyesore."
Recent headlines point to the crisis involved. Sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement officers recently raided a 2,000-plant marijuana farm near Carey, an operation suggesting the arrival of a sophisticated criminal operation. Femling also has repeatedly pointed to the growing illegal meth trafficking in the county.
If arrests of felons are on the increase, Blaine County's jail is laughably inadequate to provide the tough-on-crime facility that taxpayers demand and need.
Inevitably, a new financing proposal for a new jail must be made.
Sheriff Femling and county commissioners should tell the awful story of the Blaine jail—again—with tours of the facility for small groups who will come away appalled at what passes for a jail, and become active voices for approval of bonds.
