Upgrades have been ongoing at the Pulaski County Justice Center that the Sheriff hopes will be able to prevent inmate misbehavior.
It has been discussed at previous meetings that the Sheriff’s Department experienced savings from renegotiating a contract. That savings was used to make the alterations to the jail’s plumbing system.
Sheriff Jeff Richwine says plenty of the work has already been completed by the County’s maintenance crews.
“They’ve almost got one block done already. It’s really going to be nice,” says Richwine.
The main driver behind the change results from the jail’s relatively high water bill, and a bit of undesirable behavior from the inmates.
Toilets are sometimes purposely clogged or flushed repeatedly as a form of protest, but sometimes for reasons of mental illness at the jail. With the upgrades, jail guards will have the ability to shut-off the water in certain cells to correct misbehavior. Showers will also have a timer.
Richwine says there are certainly cost-savings benefits.
“It’s going to really be a nice benefit for our jailers and we were just talking about the money that’s going to save with the water usage to have control of it,” says Richwine.
Preventing water in a cell block can be reversed with the touch of a button under the new system.
The maintenance crew says set-up of the new system has been quite easy, but demolition of the old plumbing has been the most time consuming.
