Crook County panel urges new space to fix jail crunch

Plans to resolve the space issue facing the Crook County Jail are moving forward. An advisory committee is proposing the county renovate a building, or possibly build a new one.

On Monday, the Public Safety Facility Advisory Committee made its choice between two options.

It decided against the other option, to keep leasing out space at Jefferson County and extend that contract for years.

County Commissioner Ken Fahlgren said Tuesday that Prineville is going through “growing pains.”

“My want is to make sure we have a location that we can go on and build, if that’s needed,” Fahlgren said. “Our facilities are old. Our police department, it needs some help. It’s truly in bad shape, and it was new in 1954 and has issues around this jail.”

Fahlgren said the next phase is to decide which location this will be best, how many beds it could hold, and if they should combine the sheriff’s office, city police, parole and other departments into one central location.

“To co-locate will make some sense for all of us,” Fahlgren said. “We would change in a way that we would work even closer together. We would save money. It would make sense to work as one city in one county.”

Fahlgren expressed how pleased he is with this committee and how hard they’ve all been working. This recommendation was a unanimous vote.

Fahlgren believes they need to put together a long-term plan for law enforcement space needs, and this recommendation is on the right track.

The advisory committee will meet about three more times before presenting the county with a more specific, final recommendation on April 1.