Tuba City jail unit catches fire
Prisoner beats, locks up guards, escapes from Window Rock jail

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

FORT DEFIANCE — With Tuba City Detention Center at the end of its life cycle and in the process of closing due to health, safety, and liability concerns, a fire Friday at one of the modular units only added to the Navajo Nation's headaches.

Also last week, Criminal Investigations received a report of a December escape at the Department of Corrections' main detention facility in Window Rock during which two officers were injured. That incident further inflamed an already volatile jail situation.

According to investigators from Tuba City Police District, a fire call went out at 11:42 a.m. when a heating element on Modular B overheated and a circuit breaker failed to trip, causing several wires to burn in the heater/cooler assembly.

Navajo Nation Fire Department and tribal Maintenance personnel checked the detention unit and turned off the assembly until repairs could be made.

The Department of Corrections has had ongoing problems with the heating and cooling systems on the four modular units at the detention facility since the mid-1990s. Under the current closure plan to be phased in, two of the four modular units would be converted to drunk tanks for adult males and females. The others would house short-term inmates.

The Division of Public Safety recently won a bid to purchase a used modular from Gap school district which will be moved to Tuba to house administrative staff when the main building closes.

Corrections Director Delores Greyeyes has been asked to formulate supplemental budget requests for each of the seven districts. One of those budget requests includes a recommendation to spend over $2 million at Tuba City to purchase three modular units to house 60 inmates and to provide space for Public Safety personnel.

Meanwhile, the Navajo Nation's main jail facility, the Window Rock Detention Center, has become the dumping ground for inmates from Tuba and other districts whenever a health or safety problem forces Corrections to transfer prisoners out to another location.

The detention center, which is housed in a building adjoining the Department of Corrections and the Division of Public Safety, has its own issues to deal with, including shortage of staff and lack of space.

Lack of staffing is a common problem found at jails across Indian Country, according to an interim report released last year by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General. "In many cases, having only one correctional officer on duty per shift is not unusual; it is, in fact, common practice at some of the facilities," the report states.

Prisoner escapes
Window Rock jail was the scene of an escape Dec. 22 during which a 40-year-old inmate from Navajo, N.M., overpowered guards, locked them in holding cells, and then ran out the front door just east of the lobby of the police department.

According to investigation, inmate Egbert Hermes escaped around 10 p.m. after grabbing detention officer Eric Williams, 46, as he was escorting another inmate to a holding cell. Hermes hit Officer Williams on the left side of the face and locked him in the west serving cell, then ran into the front office of the detention center and grabbed Officer Debbie Shirley, 42, by the neck and the two fell to the floor as Hermes struggled for the keys to the jail.

Hermes grabbed Shirley's set of keys and then dragged her toward the west holding cell, pushing her into the catwalk and closing the cell door before bolting the door. Both Williams and Shirley received minor injuries in the incident.

In last year's report by the Inspector General, it was found that jail conditions are a contributing factor in escapes and issues of officer safety. The report looked at deaths, suicides, attempted suicides, escapes, and officer safety issues, focusing on whether funds designated for Indian Country jails were properly spent and whether the facilities were safe and secure.

'Deplorable conditions'
Inspectors said, "... the deplorable conditions existing at some of the facilities may lead to life-threatening situations." Also, many facilities provide ample opportunity for escape because they are physically rundown and minimally maintained, the report found.

During preliminary investigation, inspectors found more than 30 deaths, suicides, attempted suicides, and prisoner escapes at 14 facilities that were either undocumented or not reported to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Law Enforcement Services detention program.

Correctional officers told investigators it was just not possible to prevent inmates from escaping. Since the majority of facilities function with only one officer on duty, they simply cannot keep an eye on everyone. Investigators also found that some facilities do not notify local law enforcement of prisoner escapes. "This is not only disconcerting, it is irresponsible ...," investigators said.

In June 2003 at Shiprock Adult Detention Center, a prisoner wearing ankle-shackles escaped from a detention officer as she was ushering a line of prisoners from the facility to the courthouse across the courtyard. Because she was the only officer on duty at the time, she could not pursue the fleeing inmate and leave other prisoners unattended.

In March 2003, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Flagstaff stated that violent crime on the Navajo Nation is six times higher than the national average and that inadequate federal policy continues to contribute to the rising crime rate.

The Navajo Nation has been operating under a consent decree since Nov. 17, 1992, following a class action lawsuit by inmates. Navajo Nation District Court Judge Allen Sloan issued the decree to ensure that all persons housed in Navajo detention facilities were detained under humane conditions.

The decree held that if funds were not available to take the necessary steps to house people under humane conditions, the jail population must be reduced so that remaining inmates are housed accordingly.

As outlined in the Treaty of 1868, the federal government has trust responsibility for funding and maintaining law enforcement and detention facilities, according to the consent decree.

However, the judge wrote, "As a result of this lawsuit, evidence of chronic and repeated underfunding and neglect by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has come to light, especially that of the Bureau's failure to adequately fund detention under the current Public Law 638 ..."