Sheriff defends jail against allegations

Hot Springs County Sheriff Lou Falgoust and head jailer Beth Price defended the jail against Set Free Church Minister Frank Robbins’ allegations.

Robbins and the jail have had many disagreements within the past year after a negotiation was made to allow Robbins to have a two-hour time slot allotted on Thursday mornings at 8 a.m. to visit with inmates.

Hot Springs County Commissioners agreed to refund the $7,000 raised by the Set Free Church to help with improving the jail’s facilities at Robbins request.

Robbins said he does not believe he should have to share his time slot with other religious groups because of the money his ministry raised, which is why he requested the money be refunded.

“They [Falgoust and Price] both agreed to fix those facilities,” Robbins said. “Based on that, it looked like we had cooperation, like maybe they were going to work with us. We thought as a ministry that they showed good faith, so we thought we would show good faith and raise money to donate toward the project. I asked Lou if these facilities were fixed if he would allow more than one inmate to visit at a time and he said, ‘No.’ So the $7,000 donated to help fix those things so that we could visit with more than one inmate at a time was worthless. That’s why I asked for the money back, because they weren’t willing to do what they said they would do. They both agreed to give our ministry those two hours. Beth said she never agreed to that, and Lou said I was negotiating for the whole town. I wasn’t negotiating for the whole town. We donated our money for our time.”

Robbins went on to say what he meant when he called the jail a dictatorship.

“I called them a dictatorship, what that means is that she [Price] has the power of intimidation,” Robbins said. “If the inmates don’t think she wants them to see me, they won’t see me. That’s probably the way it’s going to be until I find an inmate strong enough to stand up to her. It’s very rarely that no one wants to see me, but I think that’s going to be a norm now.”

Price explained what happened at last Thursday’s visitation with inmates.

“Frank showed up at 8:05 a.m.,” Price said. “When he got there, someone else was visiting with an inmate. Frank wanted to visit with one inmate. When we talked to that inmate, they refused, so Frank left.”

Price said the week before she had called him ahead of time to let him know that he would have to share his time.

“On that day, he showed up with a list of five people he wanted to see,” she said. “Only one person wanted to see him. We split the time with fifteen minutes for each inmate. The other religious group had more inmates that wanted to see him. I explained how we split the time up with Frank and he became very upset. He stayed seated but got rather loud and kept saying that this wasn’t the agreement. I removed the inmate and I requested another deputy to come down with her camera. I wanted to record what was going on so there was no question later. At that point, Frank settled down quite a bit and left.”

There have been problems with Robbins off and on, Price said.

“There’s always something that doesn’t please him,” she said.

Robbins also brought up how difficult it has been to get bibles into the facility.

“I’m not looking for a fight with other religious organizations,” he said. “I just can’t get bibles in there. It’s been almost impossible. Beth said I couldn’t get them in under any circumstance. Lou said we could get bibles mailed from the factory and they would give them out to inmates at request.”

Robbins claimed that an inmate who was recently released from jail said she asked for a bible and the jail would not provide her with one. Price, allegedly, said the inmate could have one of the Mormon bibles that were already in there.

“We have dozens and dozens of bibles, all denominations,” Price said. “Inmates can get a bible at anytime and keep it as long as they like.”

“We are worried about contraband coming into the facility,” Falgoust said.

Another issue brought up by Robbins were the health conditions of the inmates. Robbins said the health conditions at the jail are terrible.

“It’s neglect is what it is,” Robbins said. “There is no nurse. No one tells her [Price] what to do. Lou has absolutely no power over her. They are going to deny everything I’ve told you.”

Falgoust said the jail does not have a nurse, but that the jail takes inmates to the emergency room or the clinic when necessary.

Price explained that the jail had a contract with Red Rock some years ago and they would send a doctor over one day a week. That contract has since run out, and Red Rock would not renew.

“I tried various different ways to try to get a nurse in there,” Price said. “I’ve turned every rock I can to try to find a nurse. We are doing the very best we can with what we’ve got. We are over at Red Rock at least once a week with someone.”

Falgoust said the jail is doing the best they can with what they have.

“They [inmates] get the medical attention they need,” he said. “They get the food they need. We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have.”