A juvenile jail in Casper went an unknown number of years without a full fire inspection - and without being fitted with fire alarms, sprinklers and outward-opening doors - because of jurisdictional confusion, city and Natrona County officials said.

City officials thought the county was inspecting the facility on the third floor of the five-story Hall of Justice Building in Casper. The county thought the city was doing it.

"It's one of those gray areas that kind of got … overlooked," said Dave Baker, fire inspection officer for Natrona County.

"It was just an oversight by both entities," said Baker's counterpart for Casper, Dale Anderson. "So now they're going to start doing inspections together to make sure these buildings are inspected."

The first such city-county joint inspection last month documented the lack of fire alarms and other violations of fire code.

The Wyoming Department of Family Services requires facilities to pass annual fire inspections before the state will license private companies like those that have been running the Regional Juvenile Detention Center.

Department spokeswoman Juliette Rule said that until the April inspection, fire inspectors hadn't raised any concerns that would have prevented licensing or relicensing. The department released local fire inspection reports Wednesday in response to an open records request by The Associated Press.

The inspection reports submitted to the department showed that fire extinguishers at the juvenile facility were inspected regularly. Other inspection reports showed only minor fire code violations at the Hall of Justice Building.

But the same reports for the Hall of Justice Building - which also houses the Police Department, Sheriff's Office, Circuit Court and District Attorney's Office - indicated that the third floor needed a "separate inspection." The department provided only one inspection report specifically for the juvenile facility, however, and that was for the inspection April 23.

That report said the facility was lacking fire alarms, fire sprinklers and outward-opening doors. The report also said exit signs and emergency lighting weren't compliant.

The Natrona County Commission voted last month to correct the biggest problems. Installing sprinklers could prove to be the trickiest part; commissioners are allowing up to two years to get that done, Commissioner Matt Keating said.

Keating said installing sprinkler pipes through the third floor's thick steel and concrete will be difficult. Yet exposed pipes aren't a very good option, either.

"You can't necessarily have pipes that kids can hang themselves from," Keating said.

The inspection occurred as part of a takeover of the facility's operations by a Centennial, Colo., company, Cornerstone Programs, from a Cheyenne company, Frontier Correctional Systems.

The takeover has occurred while the Department of Family Services and police investigated an alleged sexual assault between two youths at the facility in March. The assault occurred before Cornerstone began taking over the facility.

The facility has room for up to 40 youths ages 12-17. Last year, a report by a county-hired juvenile facilities expert concluded that the facility has been "sadly inadequate" for "advanced practice care" for juveniles.

The juvenile facility used to be the county's adult jail until about 10 years ago, when a new adult jail was built. Juveniles were moved into the former adult jail in what was supposed to be only a temporary solution to holding kids who get in trouble.

"It's never been the right place for kids," Keating said. "It never has been."