SCOTT JAIL PROBLEM REMAINS UNSETTLED

Scott County won't have a new jail for at least a year, and already officials are concerned it won't be large enough to handle all the prisoners.

Sheriff Bill Ferrell is so concerned about the number of county prisoners that he suggested the county's 69-year-old jail may have to stay open after the new one is built. If the number of prisoners doesn't go down significantly by then, the existing jail will have to stay open, the county will have to continue to pay to house excess prisoners in other counties, or both, he said.

Scott County expects soon to award a contract on a jail that will accommodate 120 prisoners.

The existing jail, which is in poor condition, holds 48 inmates. Ferrell said a couple of weeks ago that the county for the first time had more than 100 people in custody at that time, the most ever.

Over the past several months, increased drug arrests have kept the jail full. Prisoners who can't be boarded at the Scott County Jail are boarded in jails in Butler and Mississippi counties and at Chaffee, Mo.

County officials warned for a long time that a new jail was needed but couldn't sell voters on the need. A sales-tax proposal for a jail fell in defeat 1995. It wasn't until last November that voters passed a half-cent sales tax to raise $2 million to build the jail and $2 million to house prisoners in other counties while the jail is being built. That is because plans call for the existing jail to be demolished and a parking lot built.

The county already is spending about $30,000 a month to house prisoners in neighboring jails, and that cost would increase significantly if the inmate population continues to grow and the county continues with the plan to demolish the existing jail.

When county officials began planning for the jail three years ago, the inmate population was approximately 55 to 60 at a time. Architects and other advisers had recommended that a jail of 120 beds would be sufficient based on the county's population of about 40,000.

The presiding county commissioner, Martin Priggle, says if the jail had been built five years ago the county might not have as many inmates now. He believes criminals are aware of the lack of jail space, and drug makers and users come to Scott County knowing their chances of being locked up are less. Nevertheless, drug arrests last year grew by 43 percent over the previous year.

To complicate matters, the sheriff says there currently are 1,600 outstanding warrants that need to be served, and that would add even more prisoners.

County officials are going to have to find a solution to the problem, and keeping people who should be incarcerated out of jail shouldn't be among any of their options.