6A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL APRIL 26, 2017
ARRESTED: WHERE DO ALL THE GIRLS GO?
What happens when a female is arrested in a city that has no place to house them?
Captain Conrad Gagner stands in front of the two cells used to house female inmates in the Cottage Grove Jail
inside city hall.
n
they did was a crime and they’re taking up residency in one of the
By Caitlyn May
t h e terrorizing our community, city’s cells.
cmay@cgsentinel.com m i d d l e they’ll be released,” said Sgt.
“Where the inequity comes
of a nar- Doug Skaggs.
into play is that the males have
row hallway and down a two-ti-
Cottage Grove does not rent to return to the jail every night,”
er starcase in the basement of beds from Lane County and on said Cottage Grove Police Chief
city hall is the Cottage Grove the matrix of crimes, shoplift- Scott Shepherd.
jail. It has a booking desk, fi n- ing falls well below assault and
Male inmates are also permit-
gerprint station, a storage closet other, more serious crimes the ted to join work crew to satisfy
for uniforms and toiletrees and county facility is overrun with. their sentence but because the
cells. What it doesn't have is The combination would see a fe- city’s police force is predomi-
women. At least, not usually.
male arrested in Cottage Grove, nately male, there are no obsta-
According to Captain Conrad transported to Lane County and cles to housing male offenders
Gagner, a female may be kept released, sometimes within 24 overnight in the city’s jail.
in the basement cells if she has hours. The cycle, according to
“We don’t have the staffi ng
court upstairs the next morning. CGPD was frustrating to say the to hold females. With a mostly
It saves the local staff from driv- least. And then, Skaggs had an male staff, you could see the
ing the inmate to Lane County’s idea.
insurance companies being un-
facility only to turn around and
“I’m usually the fi rst one to easy,” Shepherd said.
bring them back. But that rare- be hesitant about his ideas but
Currently, when females are
ly happens. The majority of the so far it’s working,” said Gag- housed in the city facility, they
time, the two cells at the far end ner.
are placed in two cells that are
of the row, reserved for female
The premise is simple: fe- around a corner and behind a
inmates, are empty.
males arrested and sentenced to door to keep females separated
“We will send them to Lane jail will join the work crew and from male inmates.
County and even though what perform manual labor in lieu of
“Luckily, our dispatcher has
I
prior law enforcement experi-
ence and so, we can have her
go down and help the inmate
change into the jail clothes,”
Gagner said. But that isn’t al-
ways the case. In some instanc-
es, male offi cers have to stand
around the corner and out of
sight and have the female in-
mate call out when she’s com-
pleted the wardrobe change.
“I don’t foresee us having the
staffi ng to house females in the
near future,” Shepherd said.
Until the facility is upgraded
or an increase in staffi ng is fund-
ed and approved, Skaggs work
crew brain child will continue
to be a sentencing alternative
for females who are convicted
of crimes in Cottage Grove.
So far, the program has had
two participants. One has fi n-
ished her sentence and the other
is still working through her re-
maining days.
“We’ll have them wash cars
and paint rooms but we work
around their schedule, especial-
ly if they have a job,” Gagner
said. “What we don’t want is
people thinking they can com-
mitt a crime, get assigned to
work crew and then not show up
and complete their sentence.”
While that may be a tempt-
ing option for some inmates,
Skaggs says it’s not an option.
“We haven’t had anyone do
that but if they did, they’d be
picked up for contempt of court
and that is a more serious crime
than shoplifting. So, they would
most likely be held in county,”
he said.
As for whether or not the
work crew option creates a gap
between rights of female and
male inmates, Gagner says,
“They’re both on work crew
and they’re both satisfying their
sentences.”
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