COTTAGE GROVE (AP) - Petty criminals in Cottage Grove aren't getting off the way their counterparts in larger communities often do because of overcrowded jails.

Tucked away in the basement of City Hall is a tiny jail with nine austere cells that have stained concrete floors and cinderblock walls painted institutional beige. Those without old-fashioned bars have solid steel doors, which swing closed with a claustrophobic thud. The only view some inmates get is of a metal toilet.

Inmates there don't get to watch television. They don't have radio. The exercise program is simple: "You want to do some push-ups or jumping jacks in your cell, you can," Police Chief Mike Grover said.

Bad-check writers, petty thieves and drunken brawlers get to contemplate this view for up to 60 days at a time, no smoking allowed. When the city reopened its jail under Grover's direction in 1985, minor crime dropped in town by 30 percent to 40 percent, he said.

"You steal a bicycle in Cottage Grove, you're going to jail," the chief said. "And it's not a very pleasant place."

That no-nonsense approach to criminal justice is inspiring other communities, such as nearby Springfield.

Frustrated that the cash-strapped Lane County Jail keeps turning criminals loose to avoid overcrowding, Springfield Police Chief Jerry Smith wants to build a 100-bed city jail that keeps them locked up. Petty criminals in Springfield now face no jail time because the city has no jail and the county jail just releases them.

Smith invited Grover to talk to city councilors last week when they discussed building a city jail as part of a new public safety facility proposed downtown. If the council approves the project at its meeting Aug. 16, Springfield voters will be asked to pass a bond measure on the November ballot to raise more than $20 million for construction.

"What Cottage Grove brings to the table is showing it can be done," Smith said. "This is not magic."

Cottage Grove's little jail is a miracle of economy. The police department budgeted $7,000 and spent about $8,500 in the last fiscal year to run the jail, with most of the money going for TV dinners. That works out to less than $3 per bed per day.

That's quite a contrast to the $90 a day Lane County spends to keep inmates at the Lane County Jail, where 119 of the jail's 485 beds are closed due to budget problems.

The huge difference in these figures reflects a number of factors.

Cottage Grove's jail budget doesn't account for extra work for police officers who must check on prisoners at least once each hour. The jail has no staff of its own.

Also, Cottage Grove doesn't accept expensive prisoners: No felons, no women and no people with medical conditions do time there. Those people are either released or sent to the Lane County Jail.

Lane County Sheriff Jan Clements said there are substantially different philosophies regarding how inmates should be dealt with.

The sheriff runs a prison-like jail with at least eight distinct levels of custody, from the lightest medium-security dorms to individual segregation.

Clements can't pick and choose his prisoners. Forty percent of inmates are on prescription medications. Many are mentally disturbed. His jail takes women. It takes people who require translators to communicate. It holds violent felons serving sentences as long as two years.

Springfield's best estimates and city staffers are still meeting almost daily to hash out specifics for the City Council are that running its own city jail would cost about $1.4 million a year. For a 100-bed jail, that's about $40 per bed per day, or less than half what it costs to run the Lane County Jail.

And, yes, the sheriff said, his jail offers a few amenities. Inmates who behave get to watch television. They can read newspapers. There's a law library to help inmates prepare their own legal defenses, and rooms for inmates to meet with their lawyers in. Lane Community College instructors and volunteers come inside to teach inmates everything from high school equivalency classes to art.