Renovation complete for old section of jail
|
The decision was made early on in the jail project to convert the existing building into offices and other facilities once the new section was complete and prisoners were transferred. The renovation was begun in April of last year and jail employees and the sheriff moved into the building in late January of this year. The renovation has added a considerable amount of floor space.
The revamped existing building, with the addition of the sally port, now has 13,600 square feet, while the expansion includes 32,556 square feet, giving the facility a total of 46,156 square feet, well over an acre, of floor space.
According to Jail Oversight Committee members the old building was completely gutted and revamped.
?It?s been a total renovation,? said committee chairman Herschel Wells. ?You?ve got a brand new lobby, you?ve got a brand new sally port, which we?ve never had. All new sewer system, sprinkler system, electrical system, everything?s brand new.?
?You?ve pretty much got a brand new building,? added committee member Gary Prater.
?The most up to date laundry around here anywhere,? said Carl Bouldin.
Committee members talked about the technology installed in the facility.
?You?ve got visitation now with closed-circuit television,? Wells said. ?We?ve got offices, meeting rooms. The sheriff has his own office now. We?ve got our evidence room. We?ve added new restrooms.?
Committee members were particularly impressed with the sally port.
?It?s got two overhead doors,? Wells said. ?You push the button to close them and you?ve got the prisoner inside. If he gets loose, you?ve still got him. It will hold two cars inside.?
Jail director Eddie Knowles said there are a number of benefits with the renovation over the old building, which was cramped and hard to maintain.
?We house, on the average, a little over 200 inmates,? Knowles said, noting those inmates were once crowded into the existing building, and now, with the expansion and the renovation, the overcrowding is a thing of the past.
?We?ve got more security,? Knowles said. ?We?ve got more safety in the jail. In the old jail we had six guards taking care of 200 prisoners in a small area. And now we?ve got six guards taking care of 200 prisoners with an acre of space. We can tell a big difference with that. Everybody?s not running over everybody and we?ve got a lot more space. We?ll have a fight now maybe once a month, where in the old jail we?d have one every day. We?ve got more control.?
Knowles said this control, along with the commissary system, has cut down medical costs significantly.
All the Jail Oversight Committee members say they remember the old facility, which was overcrowded and hard to maintain and keep clean.
?This place used to smell,? Prater said, ?and the odor would follow you around wherever you went. It?s hard to believe that looking at the place now.?