A day at the Lane County Jail

From KLCC Studios, this is Oregon on the Record.

I'm Michael Dunn. The big house, the clink, the slammer, we have so many words for jail. And whether you're six years old or 96, you know what jail is and you have an idea what it's like. Do you? I thought I knew all about jail, but what I really knew was from TV and movies. And having just completed a tour of the Lane County Jail, I can say that some of my preconceived notions were right and some were way off. Today on the show, I'm going to take you on a bit of a verbal tour of our local jail and also provide you with an interview with the captain who oversees it all. Jail is a scary place, a place where every possible problem and ill of our community crashes together. And it's also a workplace where men and women try to establish order and also establish a level of humanity. Those sounds were the heavy rolling of a jail slider and the closing and locking of a cell door. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to tour a facility where no one actually wants to go, the Lane County Jail. Located near the railroad tracks off Fifth Street in downtown Eugene, the dull brick and concrete building looks very institutional and very utilitarian. I was provided a tour by the institution's leader, Captain Greg Rice, someone who's worked at the facility for 25 years. In fact, when he started my tour, he told me that when he was first hired by the sheriff's department, he thought about becoming a patrolman, but instead fell in love with working and operating a jail. Hard to believe that someone would wanna be in a place so many others desperately wanna leave, but in many ways, the Lane County Jail offers some strange contradictions. Now, I was able to join Captain Rice throughout every section of the jail, but adhering to policy, I wasn't allowed to record or take photos. I wasn't even allowed to bring my phone. So right now, I'm gonna paint you a verbal picture of the Lane County Jail and what it's like on the inside. First, those strange contradictions. The building is quite old, built in the 1970s with later sections added on in the 90s. It looks and feels like what it is, a very dated government building showcasing its age. Yet over the intervening years and out of necessity, a lot of technology has been shoehorned into the facility. video conferencing screens, a medical facility with the latest gear, and a full arraignment court built right inside. Next, it's a huge facility occupying almost two city blocks, but it also feels extremely claustrophobic. Of course, as you walk around the facility, you can't help but think, could I actually make it in a place like this? What would the tiny cells and the lack of light do to me? From the initial bay where deputies and police officers drive through huge steel doors to deposit prisoners, everything about intake involves movement from one process to another. First, there's a small room where someone might be forced to take a breathalyzer test. Next, they are patted down and searched for anything dangerous like drugs and weapons. Yes, prisoners are searched in the field, but when you're housing hundreds and hundreds of people, caution is the first and last word.