GREAT FALLS — In the video below, Brianna Juneau talks with Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter about renovations at the detention center:
At a recent Great Falls City Commission Work Session, Judge Steve Bolstad made statements towards the Cascade County Jail booking project, raising concern to reductions in inmate intakes and efficiency during the construction period.
While Judge Bolstad claims that the Sheriff Department “will not be taking DUI’s upon arrest” or “accept any non-violent misdemeanors," Sheriff Slaughter responded in a news release on April 3rd, calling the remarks “misrepresenting” of the operations during the project.
He said, “Judge Bolstad’s decision to discuss this matter publicly has unnecessarily heightened safety concerns in the community by suggesting that certain misdemeanors may not result in arrests. This misrepresentation undermines law enforcement efforts and public trust.”
To find out what exactly the project would entail and how operations would work during the construction period, I met with the Sheriff to get a tour inside the facility.
The biggest change? A major overhaul of the jail’s booking and intake area.
Right now, the intake space is cramped and outdated, which has created safety challenges to both staff and incoming inmates. With only one holding cell and daily traffic of new and transferring inmates, there can be up to 70 people in the area at one time.
“This update is necessary and is about safety, efficiency, and being realistic about our current needs,” Sheriff Slaughter told me during the walkthrough. “Now, we're going to have three holding tanks. So, we'll be able to have more classifications of people that we can hold while they're waiting the booking process. That also avoids them being chained to the bench and make it safer for our staff.”
With the new construction, the jail will have a significantly expanded holding area designed to better handle the volume coming in and out.
Another update will involve making the intake desk taller, so inmates aren’t able to jump over the counter and attack the staff. “What we're going to do is reverse that and we're going to put this up on a platform and raise the ceiling. We need to make it safer for them so that they're not as vulnerable to an inmate assault.”
The booking area also lacks drains which is necessary to keep areas clean; a problem that will be addressed during the updates.
For several months, the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office has been working closely with their key stakeholders including the County Attorney’s Office, Montana Highway Patrol, Montana Probation and Parole, and the Great Falls Police Department, hoping to ensure a smooth transition. Sheriff Slaughter ensures that the department is operating under a legal clause that requires anyone considered a public safety risk to be booked into jail, and that policy has not changed.
Sheriff Slaughter explained, “long term in the future, this is going to enhance our ability to have detainees in the facility. The community is our number one priority through this project, and we just need to work as a team in our community to get through this temporary construction project.”
