BUTTE — The Butte Detention Center has two major problems: too many inmates and not enough officers to oversee them. And this is a situation that could escalate into problems.
“There’s always that concern that there’s contraband. There’s also concern when it gets overcrowded that there’s inmate-on-inmate violence, so we’ve had some fist fights and those kind of things, nothing major, but the problem always exists,” said Butte Sheriff Ed Lester.
The jail currently has 19 detention officers, down from a full staff of 28. The jail, which was designed to hold 72 inmates, had 106 inmates in the facility as of Feb. 17. Law enforcement is training three new detention officers, but it could take up to six months before they are ready.
“It’s not like you can hire somebody and the next day plug them in as a detention officer. You don’t want to risk their safety or the safety of other officers or compromise the facility, so you have to make sure everybody’s trained properly,” the sheriff said.
It’s not always easy retaining new recruits.
“We’ve had some bad luck, we’ve hired some people that were not good fits for detention, they went to work at the detention center and within a week or two, you know, they realized that’s something they were not able to do,” said Lester.
Butte-Silver Bow is seeking applicants for detention officers at the county’s website.
“It’s not an easy job, but it’s a rewarding job and it’s a good job for people getting their foot in the door as far as law enforcement overall,” said Lester.
