Archuleta County inmates are here to stay, at least until a new jail is built to house them.
An April rainstorm flooded the Archuleta County jail and sheriff’s office and seriously damaged the building. Since then, Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office deputies have been shuttling inmates to and from the La Plata County jail.
On average, about 10 to 15 Archuleta inmates are incarcerated in Durango, said La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith.
Last week, La Plata and Archuleta county commissioners formalized the inmates’ housing arrangement with an agreement that allows Archuleta inmates to stay in the La Plata County jail for up to two years. The agreement includes an opportunity to be reauthorized.
This will give Archuleta County time to build a new jail in the next 18 months to two years, said Archuleta County Sheriff Rich Valdez.
“La Plata County has been extremely helpful in this,” he said.
As an additional stopgap, Valdez is working to acquire a building temporarily that could house inmates for a few days in order to limit the number of trips Archuleta deputies must make to transport inmates between the counties. He said he was hoping to get it within 60 to 90 days.
La Plata County is charging Archuleta County $53.64 per day to house each inmate. The contract also requires Archuleta County to pay for any necessary medical care for inmates.
The taxpayer burden for La Plata County residents is minimized through the agreement, said Todd Weaver, an attorney for La Plata County.
The agreement includes a return policy allowing the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office to return particularly troublesome inmates.
Smith said this would likely involve an extreme case in which an inmate would pose a threat to staff members. At that point, Archuleta County would have to find an alternative jail. Several county jails around the state will accept inmates from outside their jurisdictions, he said.
The document also requires Archuleta County deputies to pick up inmates once they are released from La Plata County jail.
In some cases, inmates from Archuleta County have been released in Durango, but they didn’t have any transportation back home, Smith said.
“It was a real public-safety concern,” Smith said.
Smith said he doesn’t want to see Archuleta County inmates released with no options for shelter or transportation.
To help limit the number of Archuleta County inmates in La Plata County’s jail, Valdez has started an alternative-sentencing program, and deputies are issuing more orders for people to appear in court rather than incarcerating them before their hearing.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
