Prison board approves $400,000 in equipment purchases
The county prison board on Tuesday approved equipment purchases that total nearly $400,000.
The most expensive purchase was $272,069 in kitchen equipment for the prison. The equipment includes a large oven to replace two existing ovens that do not work reliably, and replacing fryers and flat-top griddles that were in place when the prison opened in 2009.
Warden Joe DeMore said the prison is expected to receive a $30,000 discount on the equipment.
The board approved upgrading the radios that staff use for communicating inside the facility at a cost of $112,675. The upgrade is needed to address a flaw in the radio system that was discovered during a recent training exercise.
DeMore said the exercise simulated a riot in which inmates obtained radios from corrections officers. It was discovered that prison officials were not able to deactivate the radios that the inmates had to prevent them from listening to communications among prison staff to quell the riot, he said. The upgrades will allow officials to remotely deactivate radios.
In addition, the board tentatively approved spending $14,000 to have fencing installed in the restrictive housing unit to improve inmate safety. DeMore said inmates have been injured after intentionally jumping from one tier down to another. A railing currently is in place on the upper tier. Approval was tentative, because the board wanted prison staff to get other price quotes for the fencing.
The money for the purchases is coming from the inmate welfare fund, which had a balance of $1.04 million as of the end of November. Money in the fund comes from commissions on inmate phones, tablets and commissary purchases.
County Controller Benjamin Holland, a prison board member, said the fund shouldn’t be used to pay for operations at the facility. He said money from the fund can be transferred to an operating fund to give officials an accurate account of the prison’s operating costs.
Officials also addressed a rumor and misconception regarding federal inmates being held in the prison.
District Attorney Richard Goldinger, a prison board member, said the rumor that federal inmates are being released into the community is not true.
He said most of the federal inmates have charges pending against them and are being held before their trials, but some are ordered to be released from custody.
DeMore said those released inmates are taken to a bus stop or driven to where they have to go by prison staff, but they are not released into the community. Using the inmate welfare fund, the prison will buy bus tickets for the inmates when necessary and walk them to the bus stop, he said.
Of the 422 inmates in the prison as of Dec. 13, 219 were sent there through the federal court system.
