04/24/2009

By LEE LOGAN  / Associated Press

When two inmates got up to the roof of the Integrity Correctional Center and shimmied down the front of the building, the privately run jail did not tell anyone for 14 hours.

And even the escape itself wasn't specifically prohibited by Missouri law.

The escape last August has prompted state lawmakers to try to regulate Missouri's private jails for the first time.

"It caused a lot of fear in the community," said Sen. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, the sponsor of the private jail legislation. "The intent is not to put these folks out of business, but to make them accountable and allow them to have a good, safe operation."

The escaped inmates — one was awaiting trial on a charge of assaulting a police officer and the other on a charge of aggravated robbery — eventually were caught. But local officials and others were concerned because the jail did not notify the Johnson County sheriff for 14 hours, while jail administrator David Burris said jail staffers were confirming an escape had happened.

A bill before the Legislature would require private jails to "take prompt and reasonable action" to confirm an escape and then notify local police, the sheriff's office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The bill also would create an "escape from confinement" charge for those who break out of private jails.

The inmates in the Johnson County escape were charged with escape from custody, but that's something usually used when people take off after an arrest but before they're in jail. The inmates were charged with a felony, but it would have been a misdemeanor if they were being held on lesser charges. The new escape charge would be a felony in all cases.

Private jails also would have to "arrange for necessary health care services" for inmates, a provision that was spurred by the 2006 death of Angela Lockridge, an epileptic inmate at Integrity who was dependent on daily medication.

The legislation passed the Senate by a 31-1 vote last month and received the endorsement of a House committee this week.

Integrity jail in Centerview has contracts with various cities and counties in Missouri and surrounding states to house their inmates. The ones who escaped in August were from Wyandotte County, Kan., which sends about 120 of its 600 prisoners there because it doesn't have enough beds of its own. That county also sends inmates to the Bridewell Detention Facility in Bethany, Missouri's only other private jail.

The Integrity jail does not oppose the legislation, and Burris said the facility already adheres to requirements in the bill.

Jeff Fewell, the jail administrator in Wyandotte County, said the inmates in question should have been sent to a maximum-security facility instead of Integrity, a minimum-security jail for people convicted or accused of nonviolent crimes.

"We don't do that anymore," he said, adding that the person who previously classified inmate security levels was fired and that he has a "different philosophy" than earlier administrators.

Fewell said the inmates walked through an open back door at the jail and crawled underneath an interior security fence before climbing up an air conditioning duct to the roof.

The Integrity jail has since installed $100,000 in security improvements, including an alarm on that back door, additional security for the fence and razor wire around the air conditioning duct, Fewell said.

"I'm not going to say it's a maximum-security facility, but we feel comfortable that our inmates are safe there," he said.

Integrity's lobbyist, Woody Cozad, says it's the facility's customers who provide oversight.

"We are accountable to the customer, local law enforcement," Cozad said, noting the jail's security improvements. "We have to do that, or we know what will happen. Wyandotte County will call and say, 'Send us back our prisoners.'"

Some who oppose private jails, such as the Missouri Catholic Conference, contend they should at least be accredited through a group such as the American Correctional Association.

"We just want to make sure that private jails are not just out there doing whatever they want," said Rita Linhardt, a lobbyist for the conference.

But Republican Rep. Mike McGhee, chairman of the House corrections committee, noted that some smaller, local jails might not even pass.

"Some of them are pretty rough," he said.

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Private jail regulations is SB44 and HB510

On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov