RNC arrestees: Sheriff has a plan

Gearing up for a possible onslaught of arrests during the Republican National Convention, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher outlined plans Monday to process and temporarily house protesters next to the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.

Fletcher said he anticipates that most arrested protesters would be charged with misdemeanors and released in two to four hours and at most six. He also said elaborate plans have been developed to avoid the multimillion-dollar lawsuits that protesters filed against New York City after the GOP convention in 2004. Many of those allegations involved treatment of those arrested and poor conditions in the holding facilities.

"We clearly wanted to learn from the New York situation, and we wanted to have an improved processing plan," Fletcher said.

He has previously estimated that the number of arrests during the St. Paul convention could range from 600, the number during the 2000 GOP convention in Philadelphia, to 1,800, the total in New York in 2004.

There are 250 deputies in Ramsey County, and 200 will be devoted to the Republican convention, Fletcher said. The county also has 120 detention officers, with 80 assigned to the RNC. The jail can hold 500 inmates, and an undisclosed number will be transferred to other jails during convention week to open spaces for protesters who are arrested.

Role-playing session

Sheriff's deputies went through their fourth role-playing session on Monday. Volunteers, portraying arrested demonstrators, stood with hands behind their backs, in plastic handcuffs. Deputies photographed and videotaped them.

During the convention, mobile units of deputies will process arrested protesters in the city, going wherever they are directed by police, Fletcher said.

Protesters arrested for minor infractions will be cited for petty misdemeanors and probably be issued a citation and released at the scene, according to a police source.

But people arrested for misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors or felonies, or those arrested for petty misdemeanors without proper identification, will be taken to the law enforcement center.

Those held for gross misdemeanors and felonies will go to jail and make a court appearance, while those facing misdemeanors will be put in the first floor of the Emergency Communications Center, next to the jail, which has been turned into a temporary holding facility. Fletcher declined to show a reporter the interior, but it appears to be about 20,000 square feet.

Portable toilets will be brought next to the facility to supplement restrooms. Large, mobile air conditioning units have been set up outside the facility to pump in cool air.

Doctors and nurses will be on hand and the Sheriff's Office will have easy access to Regions Hospital, he said. Short-term detainees will receive a bag lunch, while long-term detainees will get a hot meal.

Concrete barriers continued to be installed Monday around the campus that includes the St. Paul Police Department, jail and county law enforcement center. While Fletcher declined to say how extensive the barriers will be, a police source said they will encircle the campus.

Meanwhile, attorneys for several protest groups appeared in Ramsey County District Court on Monday, asking Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin to expand the public viewing area near the Xcel Energy Center where protesters can demonstrate during the convention. The city says it is providing generous and unprecedented access for dissenting views.