La Plata County Jail nearly full, vows to no longer accept low-level municipal offenders (2024)

Sheriff requests formal agreement with Durango before taking any more inmates

La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith said in a letter to the county’s three municipalities, Bayfield, Ignacio and Durango, on Thursday that the county jail will no longer accept “fresh arrests or sentenced inmates on municipal charges” effective Aug. 15.

Smith cited jail population growth from about 165 inmates per day to 207 inmates per day over the last several weeks, surpassing its maximum population threshold of 195 inmates per day. There were 193 inmates in the jail Thursday morning.

The decision will impact only low-level offenders arrested on municipal charges, such as failure to appear in municipal court or unpaid traffic tickets. People arrested on suspicion of more serious offenses charged under state law will still be held at the detention center, Smith said.

“This is strictly when a municipality wants to put people in custody for the things that they charge under their code through their court,” he said.

Although the explosion in inmate population could quickly pass, Smith’s letter indicated that any municipality wishing to house inmates at the jail must negotiate an intergovernmental agreement with the county – something Durango and La Plata County do not currently have.

Bayfield and Ignacio have not used the county detention facility lately. But Durango does use the jail under the terms of a “gentlemen’s agreement,” according to County Manager Chuck Stevens.

City officials produced a 1994 IGA that has automatically renewed itself according to a 1996 amendment. The document, last updated nearly 30 years ago, states that the city shall compensate the county $55 per day for each municipal inmate in the jail and does not contain a clause to increase that amount over time. It also states that the agreement can only be canceled for cause and with 30 days notice.

Under the terms of an antiquated IGA with San Juan County (Silverton), La Plata County was recently exposed to potential expenses related to the medical needs of a San Juan County inmate housed in the La Plata County Jail.

“That's not a position we're comfortable with continuing,” Stevens said. “So what we would like in negotiations is just shoring up our legal exposure.”

In 2023, Smith said municipal inmates occupied about 10 beds over the course of the year. In the first seven months of 2024, the number of municipal jail-bed days has exceeded 130. Under the terms of the unofficial agreement, the city pays the county $78 for each day an inmate spends in jail, although a recent financial analysis by the county found its actual expenses for housing are $153 per day.

How the compensation increased from $55 to $78 without official documentation remains unknown.

In his letter, Smith recognized that the recent boom in population is “based on many factors,” of which municipal governments are one. The jail also holds inmates in the custody of the Colorado Department of Corrections and the U.S. Marshals.

Upon receipt of the letter, the city of Durango announced a special meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday when City Council will discuss “potential litigation” over the sheriff’s letter in an executive session.

City Attorney Mark Morgan said Smith’s letter caught the city by surprise. Any potential legal action taken by the city would concern the Sheriff’s Office’s responsibility to honor Durango Municipal Judge Matt Margeson’s orders.

“It’s the court system that determines who goes to jail, who stays in jail and for how long,” Morgan said. “And that is not traditionally a role of the sheriff’s department.”

If Smith’s decision to reject “fresh arrests” or municipally sentenced inmates violates state law, then the city could potentially litigate something, he said.

Morgan said the number of people held in La Plata County Jail on municipal court order every week is well below the jail’s maximum capacity, just two to three people a week.

Durango municipal court deals only with petty offenses, often associated with trespassing, illegal camping, public intoxication and urinating in public, he said. But Margeson, the municipal judge, doesn’t sentence people to jail time for those offenses.

The only time people are sentenced to jail in municipal court is if they skip their court hearings. Even then, they are held only on Mondays and Tuesdays before court on Wednesdays, he said. Typically, two to three people are picked up on temporary municipal warrants for skipping court and housed in county jail until Wednesday court appointments every week.

He added that if someone is arrested by Durango police on felony charges, their cases are brought through district court and they are bound for county jail anyway.

Smith said that in 2000, the National Institute of Corrections analyzed the county jail and projected that over a 30-year period, it would likely need a capacity of 330 beds. In 2001, voters were asked and declined to fund a 330-bed facility. Since then, the Sheriff’s Office has completed two stages of a three-stage process in constructing new facilities, resulting in a total of 260 physically usable beds.

There was never a need for the third stage to be built, Smith said, until now.

But because of state standards and a need to separate inmates by sex and security level, the facility should not exceed 195 inmates.

Since the 2000 study, a lot has changed, Smith said. Judges seem to be sentencing people to jail more frequently, he mused, and incarceration numbers have crept up after they bottomed out during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It's hard to predict what's going to impact jail population,” Smith said, noting that his staff would continue to explore ways to reduce it.

rschafir@durangoherald.com, cburney@durangoherald.com