Crook County officials say the recent indictments of three inmates accused of supplying drugs into the jail underscore the need to finish the new facility now under construction.

The long-awaited and high-tech new Crook County jail could more effectively keep out drugs and other contraband, a recurring problem, according to Crook County Undersheriff James Savage.

“It’s a constant problem with people trying to get things into our facility, as with any correctional facility,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘chronic’ problem, but there have been problems in the past.”

This week, across the street from the jail, tradespeople under general contractor Kirby Nagelhout began roofing operations on the $18.5 million jail project, which includes a $10 million bond component approved by voters in 2016. It was originally scheduled to wrap up in December, but plans were adjusted considerably when an environmental survey revealed soft soil at the project site.

The planned facility had to be scaled down from two stories to one, and 800 earth-stabilizing supports were added to designs.

In addition, a homeless men’s shelter was relocated to make way.

The current jail was once the Prineville Fire Department, last remodeled in 1968. It holds 16 inmates — men only — but to account for considerable overflow, the county has since 2005 rented beds at the Jefferson County Jail in Madras for a rate of $72 per inmate, per day. The daily ferrying of inmates back and forth from Madras, 31 miles away, also adds about $50,000 per year in mileage and staff time.

But this arrangement still doesn’t provide enough space for the agencies that house inmates in Prineville. A waiting-list system is used for defendants sentenced in Crook County Circuit Court. Thursday, the list was 67 people long.

“It’s a logistical nightmare,” Savage said. “It’s just a constant battle that we fight every day.”

Beyond logistics, Savage said the current facility is unsafe. The doors are still locked and unlocked with a key by the jailer, just as they were in 1968.

The facility is also vulnerable to contraband, Savage said.

Late on the night of Aug. 28, a search warrant request was submitted to Judge Daina Vitolins to search an inmate for evidence that he’d brought drugs inside the jail.

“Dallas Harper not only brought the heroin into the facility, but also still has some in his rectum,” wrote Sgt. Brian Bottoms in the affidavit. “It is necessary to search the person of Dallas James Harper in light of the fact that it is a danger to his physical safety to allow controlled substances to remain inside of his rectum for any period of time.”

The U.S. Constitution protects Americans from cavity searches without a warrant.

The warrant was signed by Vitolins around 11 p.m., and a search of Harper yielded a balloon containing pills, Bottoms wrote in a supplemental court report.

On Sept. 21, Harper was indicted on felony charges of supplying contraband — specifically suboxone — to the Crook County jail. He was released from the jail three days later. His next hearing in the case is next week.

Two other inmates have been charged with the felony of supplying contraband into the jail — Craig Major and Dustin Page.

The sheriff’s office is trying to get a body scanner for the facility. The device could have prevented instances like those uncovered by a recent bust.

In addition to numerous security cameras, the new jail will be heavily wired to allow all doors to be locked and unlocked by computer. The water and HVAC systems will also be controlled by corrections officers in a central control tower.

“It’s a pretty high-tech building for what it is,” said project superintendent Roger Snow of Kirby Nagelhout.

The project is on track to hit the revised completion date of April 30, and be ready for inmates in July, according to Snow.

It includes two, one-story components that nearly abut the current Crook County Sheriff’s Office — an administration building and a housing unit. The administration building is standing with a roof, and is scheduled to receive drywall by Nov. 1. In the housing area, the exterior walls are completed and the interior walls are being worked on, and the roof should begin going up in mid-October.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com