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Public experiences sight, smell of SEKRCC
Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series.
Sometimes the people touring the Southeast Kansas Regional Correctional Center appeared to be amazed at the outdated equipment. Sometimes they appeared to be disgusted from the odor.
Whatever their reaction, Sheriff Bill Martin hopes the tour gave the 100 people who attended the open house Tuesday a clear picture of why the county needs a new jail.
The facility was opened to the public from 2 to 8 p.m. Tuesday during which Martin and jail staff lead tours of six to seven people through a portion of the jail.
During the tour, Martin said the jail, built in 1977, was designed for 27 inmates.
"They didn't look ahead to see where we were going to be at 30 to 35 years later," Martin said. "And here we are, trying to figure out what to do."
The tour began with the janitorial closet, which, along with mops, buckets and cleaning supplies, also houses the phone system for the entire courthouse and the electronic system for the jail.
"If anything happens to the telephone system because of the chemicals they use or mops and buckets, (the phone lines) are all exposed," Martin said. "The electrical components for the sheriff's office, the control room -- they're all exposed."
He said each time the fire department conducts an inspection, there is always a notation regarding the storage room.
Having the room serve multi-purposes also means jail staff frequently have to accommodate repairmen.
The intercom system, located in the control room, is outdated and recently when it broke down, the county spent $5,000 replacing it. Martin said the installer has been down about every other week making adjustments to the system.
"There is always something wrong with it," Martin said.
Director of Security Julie Miller said a new phone system, which will soon be installed, had to be compatible with the existing wiring. Installing new wiring would have been more expensive, she said.
The next stop on the tour was the visiting room, which accommodates one inmate at a time. Visits have to be scheduled 24 hours in advance and each inmate is allowed a half-hour visit each week with up to two adults and two children and an additional half-hour pastoral visit.
Martin said in a new facility, visits could be expanded to accommodate more people.
In the control room, the antiquated control panel opens and closes doors. Replacing parts for the panel, which is original to the facility, requires a search on the Internet, Martin said.
"If that happens to go down, which it has, I cannot open a door in this facility without a key," Martin said. "It's a safety issue."
A CO also monitors three television screens connected to the surveillances cameras throughout the jail. Martin said even with the cameras, there are blind spots in the jail. The jail is not in compliance with line-of-sight guidelines under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, enacted by George W. Bush.
Newer jails are designed so the CO sitting in the control room can look in any direction and actually look into a pod, which is made up of the cells.
In the existing control room, "all he's seeing is a hallway and a concrete wall," Martin said. "He can't see what the inmates are actually doing. He can't even hear what's going on back there."
Another safety issue is a wad of wiring coming into the control room near the feet of the CO on duty.
"There's a lot of voltage coming in through there," Martin said.
He said the jail also is not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Inmates have to step over a ledge to get into the showers.
"We have violated so many federal laws right now, we can be shut down," Martin said. "But we do accommodate for certain circumstances."
He said when one inmate was unable to step up into the showers, a CO had to take him to the locker room located in the basement. That meant a CO was taken off the floor and the inmate was taken through a public area.
Typically there are four COs working each day, but they have other responsibilities, such as laundry. Because there are no laundry facilities in a secured area, inmates are not allowed to do laundry.
Currently, inmates sweep and mop their areas and some assist with serving meals, but they are not allowed to prepare the food.
Inmates are allowed to be in an outdoor exercise area at least one hour a day. The current facility also has an indoor exercise area, which originally was a classroom.
Martin said when the facility was built, the theory was that people went to jail for a reason. A judge would order inmates to go through drug and alcohol counseling or obtain a GED in the hopes that with a GED, the inmates would get a job and not return to jail. Fort Scott Community College sent instructors for the GED classes.
"Now with no funding, we don't have that luxury any more," Martin said.
He said there is funding for programs inmates can take advantage of after they are released.
Safety is one issue driving the push for a new jail. During the tour, Martin pointed out several areas where officers -- or inmates -- are at risk. One of those is the detox room, which includes a toilet and a shower. There is an area beside the shower where inmates can hide and attack COs as they enter the room. Martin said he experienced that the first year he was a deputy.
Visitors also saw the cells where inmates live and where concrete is falling apart. In another cell, the bed was made level by placing a book under one leg.
"Do you want to put a Band-aid on a gunshot wound?" Martin said.
The lockdown area also poses safety risks, as the safety glass has been broken out of the door windows.
"So when the inmates are in their cells and the doors are closed, the inmates can reach out and grab the COs," Martin said.
Deputy Logan Probasco, a former director of security and jail administrator, said that happened about a dozen times during the seven years he worked in the jail.
"And that all depends on the inmates," Martin said.
"We've had inmates throw feces out the window at you, hot food when they get their meal tray," Probasco said. "They're locked in here because they've done something in jail. They're locked in here 23 hours a day, so they're angry about something, they're grabbing for you, attacking you, throwing something at you."
He said locked down inmates must use the one hour they have outside their cell to take a shower or make a phone call.
The mechanism that opens and locks the cell doors in the area failed about 15 times while Probasco was working in the jail. When that happens, the doors have to be pried open, he said.
The booking room is in a multi-purpose area.
Prisoners enter the area through the sally port, which is an open area outside the jail. In a new facility, a garage door would be raised to allow an officer to drive in, then the door is lowered. The officer then would bring the inmate out of the car and into the jail.
"You cannot imagine how many people decide they can run away from the cops with their hands handcuffed behind their backs," Martin said. "It's been done numerous times."
He said currently, officers have to lead an inmate up an incline that is hazardous when it's icy or snowy.
"We try to keep our balance, plus bring someone in who's under the influence of alcohol and can't keep their own balance," Martin said. "You put ice and snow on top of that and we're literally sliding them up the hill. That's a safety issue because if we slip and fall and hurt ourselves, that's a workmen's comp issue."
The area also has a TV for video court, a nurse's station, a tiny attorney-client conference room and an observation room for those inmates who might do harm to themselves or others. They are provided a paper jump suit to prevent an inmate from attempting suicide.
"It's been several months since we've had a suicide in this jail, but it does happen in this facility," Martin said.
The detox room is small, "and if they get really aggressive, there's not much room to fight with somebody," Martin said.
There also is a shower where each inmate must be deloused. They also are strip-searched before they enter a pod.
Martin said "cross traffic" takes place when there is an inmate, nurse and CO in the medical room and at the same time, two arrests are brought in.
In a new facility, each of these areas is separate, open and visible to other officers so they can assist when necessary.
"This is courtroom, booking, this is medical call, this is observation, this is DUI processing, all this takes place right here," Martin said. "And if I have the Kansas Highway Patrol bringing in people, I have KBI bringing in people, I have Bourbon County bringing in people and if I have Fort Scott bringing in people, you don't think this is a cluster, disorganized mess? It is. Trust me. I've been here when it is. There have been times I've had to sit out in my patrol car and wait for them to clean this area out, meaning processing people, before I can bring my arrestees in."