Maintenance of aging Trinity County Jail is costly

Trinity County's 33-year-old jail is in a constant maintenance/ repair mode and "it's become a major expense to keep that place running now," according to Sheriff Lorrac Craig during a recent strategic planning session with the Board of Supervisors regarding deferred maintenance issues in county-owned facilities.

The oldest part of the existing jail in Weaverville was completed in 1976 and the "new" section that includes the kitchen is 18 years old.

Craig said that when something breaks, replacement parts almost always have to be specially manufactured to fit, resulting in faucets that cost $1,200 and a new toilet that was $3,000.

"We're having carbon monoxide issues today because a heater is not working, so we shut it down and we're working on that as we speak," he said, adding the floor in the kitchen needs repair and purchasing a new $25,000 walk-in freezer has become a top health and safety priority. The current unit is under constant repair and would pose a health hazard if food is not maintained at the proper temperature.

Craig said Trinity is one of few counties in the state to charge inmates $20 a day for their incarceration that costs roughly $70 a day, but the recovery rate for the fees charged is not good "and you can't put them back in jail for not paying."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 900 in 2007, providing $1.2 billion in jail construction funding to local jurisdictions. Trinity County went through an initial needs assessment and site survey at that time, but did not proceed with more expensive planning.

Sheriff Craig said none of the counties that were awarded jail construction money have received any yet and some are as much as $10 million out of pocket for their preparations.

"The biggest issue for us was if you built a jail on the state's money, you had 90 days to fully staff it to state standards and that was a problem for us," he said.

A facilities study that was prepared in the 1990s recommended combining a new county jail with the juvenile hall built 10 years ago next to the Weaverville airport and landfill.

Sewer capacity and other infrastructure improvements were oversized for the juvenile hall with the idea that additional county facilities would eventually be constructed there after the airport was relocated.

Sheriff Craig and Chief Probation Officer Terry Lee indicated that locating the facilities together would still be the optimum solution, enabling the two departments to share staffing when staffing is short.

However, a decision by the Board of Supervisors to halt the airport relocation project means that the airport safety zone limits future building options on that ground.

Sheriff Craig said most jails in the state are at or above capacity and all are facing the additional threat that the California Department of Corrections will return lower class inmates back to county jails that are already full to reduce overcrowding in state prisons.

He added that even if Trinity County somehow came up with the $15 million to build a new jail "and we started today, it would be five years before we had a new facility. On the current footprint, we're as big as we can be without going up. We don't have the space to do more there."

One suggestion was to expand the jail facilities into the Veterans Memorial Hall next door that also has some costly deferred maintenance issues, but County Administrative Officer Dero Forslund commented that expanding the jail next to the high school would likely generate some opposition in the community.

The strategic planning session involved discussion only and no board action.

Chief Probation Officer Lee said he believes the state is going to release inmates back to counties to house "and I think there will be pressure to make sure local folks have the jail space and mental health space to provide services for our inmates that we do not have now."

Others said they believe the airport safety zone restrictions might possibly be relaxed if the county were to pursue additional development adjacent to its juvenile hall.

"That's still the best plan in my opinion if we could get an FAA waiver," said Sup. Judy Pflueger.

CAO Forslund said he has always thought all the offices in the county courthouse in downtown Weaverville should be moved to an administrative complex at the airport and the courthouse turned into a museum.

"It's an old building that's really three separate buildings and we will always have issues there," he said.