Hamilton County's Sheriff is touting upgrades to the jail. Cells on the fifth floor of the Justice Center have a fresh coat of paint, new furniture, repaired control rooms, and new locks.
Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey says inmates were breaking the old locks on their cells, using paper, plastic and anything else they could get their hands on.
“We have state-of-the-art locking systems so that now we can redistribute board games and playing cards and things like that to the prisoners because, honestly, when you’re sitting idle all day, that makes for not a very good day,” she says. “And we want the prisoners, we want people who are incarcerated, to have things to do when they’re in this pod.”
McGuffey says that will improve safety for prisoners and staff.
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While law enforcement agencies across the country have had problems recruiting, the Sheriff's Office says the Justice Center will be fully staffed within three months. Chief Deputy Jay Gramke says that will also make the facility safer.
“When we were under-staffed, these deputies, the amount of work that they did, the overtime that they had to endure, yes, I think, just like anything else, if you work that kind of hours, it adds to your stress. It adds to mistakes,” he says. “So yes, I think absolutely, us being fully staffed is going to help that.”
Gramke says the improvements have helped with recruiting and with staff morale.
McGuffey says the improvements mean Hamilton County doesn’t have to build a new or another jail. “We have renovated this jail (at a) a fraction of the cost of a new jail, and we have gotten the taxpayers the best deal possible to incarcerate individuals who have broken the law.”
New locks cost about $4.5 million, and window screens another $2 million.
The Justice Center opened in 1985 with 840 cells. There are nearly 1,200 people incarcerated there now.
