Jail improvements required to receive state certification
Minor improvements to Warren County Jail are being proposed in an effort to pave the way for the facility to achieve state certification.
The original booking section and sally-port designed into the jail are still not being utilized due to staffing and some security concerns from Sheriff Jackie Matheny. The improvements, along with staffing, were the subject of a recent meeting of the Jail Oversight Committee.
Jail Oversight Committee member George Smartt, who held the meeting in the absence of committee chairman Herschel Wells, says the jail is in good shape in other areas, as far as the condition of the facility and care of the prisoners, but staffing is a concern as far as having the jail certified.
?We discussed this at length at our last meeting,? Smartt said. ?And staffing seems to be the major holdup as far as getting certified.?
According to County Executive John Pelham, one of the main items holding up certification is the fact the booking area and sally-port are currently not in service.
?That?s one of the main things the state is concerned about,? Pelham said. ?And we?re working right now to get that done, but it will require hiring the staff needed to run the area before we can open it.?
The sheriff has been working with the state to determine what would be considered adequate staffing, but has so far been advised to determine the number of staff he feels would be sufficient and the state would then inspect the jail to determine if that level of staffing is acceptable.
Matheny says he realizes it all depends on the funding that will be available in next year?s budget as to how many employees he will be able to add, and much of that depends on county commissioners, who are notoriously reluctant to back a tax increase.
?These guys have got some tough decisions to make about raising taxes and that kind of thing,? Matheny said. ?If the money?s going to be there, I?m sure we?re going to have our employees. If not, then that?s another thing that would have to be looked at. We would need extra employees to open up this side. If that can be done, that?s great, but if not, then we?ll just continue how we?re doing business now. I?d love to see this open, but you?ve got to look at it realistically.?
Matheny does have a conservative estimate on the number of employees it would take. Because of the way the shifts at the jail are staggered, there are technically four shifts to contend with.
?To be able to open this section we figured it would take about eight employees,? Matheny said. ?That would be two extra each shift. I feel pretty confident we can do it with that and it would still be safe.?
Before any employees are hired, Matheny wants to make some changes to the booking facility to bolster security in the area.
Specifically, Matheny has asked that some extra partitions be constructed in the booking area to allow easier segregation of prisoners and the public, including judicial commissioners, who write warrants, and bail bondsmen, who actually deal with prisoners face to face. The new partitions would limit bondsmen to contact with their client, but no other inmates.
Matheny says the current system has caused some problems with bail bonding businesses where prisoners have come in contact with bondsmen working with another client and requested their services, which other companies have had problems with in some circumstances.
?We give them a list of bail bonding businesses,? Matheny said. ?We?re not allowed to make recommendations, that?s illegal, so we just give them the list and they can call whoever they want. But if they see another bondsman out here with another client, sometimes they ask that bondsman if he could bail them out too, and that?s where the problem has come up. It?s a competitive business.?