America's Top 10 Jails: Inmate Is Keeping Track

CHICAGO - Cable TV, fully equipped recreation rooms and yards, and every Friday the Captain's Plate: Alaskan king crab, shrimp and scallops.

Such is life at the Fairbanks Correctional Center in Alaska, at least according to inmates who ranked it No. 1 in "Your Guide to America's Top Ten Jails."

"It has amazed me. You ought to be in some of these places," said Joseph Henslik, 41, who is serving eight years for forgery in the Adams County Detention Facility in Brighton, Colo., outside Denver.

Henslik and two inmates at other jails, John Shinners and John Molena, compiled the list of the nation's most luxurious lock-ups based on their own experiences and interviews with more than 100 other inmates.

Their guide appears in July's issue of Playboy, but a magazine spokesman said the ratings weren't scientifically compiled or corroborated. "This is inmate chatter," said spokesman Bill Paige.

Jail administrators from Alaska to Florida said most of the amenities are required by state law or were offered to defuse tension.

"We keep it clean, we keep it orderly, and we treat people like human beings," said L.T. Brown, warden of the 10th-ranked Hernando County Jail, in Brooksville, Fla..

"They get the impression it's a real hotel here, but it's still a jail. It's not easy being in jail," said Capt. Johnny Bowman, who works at the Cabell County Jail (ranked No. 6) in Huntington, W.Va.

Among the runners-up:

-- Boulder County Jail (No. 2) in Boulder, Colo., where inmates sleep one to a cell in a guaranteed smoke-free environment, are allowed regular contact visits and use of a videocassette recorder.

-- Oahu Community Correctional Center (No. 3) in Honolulu, which offers aerobics classes for inmates and feasts including roast Kalua pig on holidays.

-- Clark County Detention Center (No. 4) in Las Vegas, which - according to the inmates - allows unlimited free local phone calls and lets inmates place bets with friends on the outside.

Jim Symbol, superintendent of the Fairbanks Correctional Center, said he hasn't heard much from the public about the Fairbanks jail's No. 1 ranking.

"I did have a woman call who said young people would see this and think jail's not a bad place to be," he said.

At the Evans County Jail in southern Georgia (No. 7), Sheriff Eddie Bradley said the inmates were right about the good food, which is catered from a diner.

But Bradley said prisoners don't "lounge on down pillows," as the list claims. "The only down pillows in this jail are the ones that have been down on the floor," he said.

Don Zeller, administrator for the Linn County Correctional Center (No. 9) in Iowa, says the cable TV and access to telephones makes for "cooler, calmer inmates."

Henslik, who has been in prison for 17 of the past 20 years for crimes such as bank robbery and forgery, met his co-authors at a writer's workshop Henslik conducted in a Wisconsin prison.

He says he is trying to write his way out of a life behind bars.

But as jails go, his current home is pretty good, he said recently: "If there was a No. 11, this would be it."

---------------------------------------- NATION'S 10 BEST JAILS ----------------------------------------

Here are the nation's 10 best jails, according to inmates, and why they like them:

1. Fairbanks Correctional Center, Fairbanks, Alaska. Capacity: 194. Inmates per cell: dormitory-style bunks and single cells. TV: total cable. Visits: regular contact visits. Meals: varied and plentiful.

2. Boulder County Jail, Boulder, Colo. Capacity: 311. Inmates per cell: one. TV: VCR and network. Visits: regular contact visits. Meals: skimpy but hot. One of few jails with a smoke-free environment.

3. Oahu Community Correctional Center, Honolulu. Capacity: 708. Inmates per cell: two. TV: total cable. Visits: contact visits. Meals: holiday feast (Kalua pig) prepared. Aerobics classes, continuing education courses and law library.

4. Clark County Detention Center, Las Vegas. Capacity: 1,343. Inmates per cell: one to two. TV: network, nightly videos. Visits: limited contact visits. Meals: small and warm.

5. Olmsted County Jail, Rochester, Minn. Capacity: 54. Inmates per cell: one. TV: cable. Visits: supervised contact visits almost daily. Meals: tradition of great cooking established by sheriff's wife.

6. Cabell County Jail, Huntington, W.Va. Capacity: 150. Inmates per cell: two to four and dormitory style. TV: basic cable. Visits: contact visits, five nights a week. Meals: occasional pizza and cola. Special diet meals available.

7. Evans County Jail, Claxton, Ga. Capacity: 25. Inmates per cell: two to four. TV: network. Visits: no contact. Meals: delicious, catered from local diner.

8. Crittenden County Jail, Marion, Ky. Capacity: 16. Inmates per cell: two to four. TV: Satellite hookup, no remote control. Visits: no contact. Meals: Include fried chicken and pizza.

9. Linn County Correctional Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Capacity: 155. Inmates per cell: one. TV: Cable available until 10:30 p.m. Visits: no contact. Meals: good but small.

10. Hernando County Jail, Brooksville, Fla. Capacity: 252. Inmates per cell: two to eight. TV: basic cable, video movies on weekend. Visits: contact visits. Meals: hot, above average. Orange juice at breakfast.

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