The Pulaski County Agenda Committee sent an ordinance Tuesday night to fulfill payment for the Pulaski County sheriff's office to get a new control panel for the jail.
With the passage of the ordinance at the full Quorum Court meeting Feb. 23, the issues with the Pulaski County jail that came to light in 2020 will be completely addressed financially.
Pulaski County Comptroller Mike Hutchens told justices of the peace Tuesday that most of the carryover funds from the 2020 general fund would go toward replacing the control panel.
The ordinance, 21-I-10, will carry over about $3.7 million, with $2.4 million going toward the purchase of the control panel for the jail.
"It's county general money," Hutchens told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "It's just carryover from last year."
The panel that will receive necessary funding from the ordinance controls the cameras and doors within the facility.
In its current state, the newest parts of the outdated system for the control panel were purchased in 2012, according to jail maintenance workers.
That has created an unsafe work environment for the deputies and other workers in the jail because many cameras are not working and staff could get stuck behind a locked door without a way to ask for entry, Sheriff Eric Higgins has said.
"Obviously we're excited about getting [this] done," Higgins said. "It's been a need of the detention center for a long, long time. I think its going to be key for both the safety of the deputies and the detainees in the facilities."
The sheriff's office has been struggling to keep jail employees, in part, Higgins said, due to the safety issues and high stress from overtime. The sheriff said he hopes the improvements will lower vacancies in the jail.
"[A detention facility] is not conducive for everyone to work when everything is functioning properly, but when you have people coming out of their individual cells, that creates an unsafe work environment," Higgins said. "And people are not going to want to work under those conditions."
Specifically, with the large number of individuals entering and leaving the jail during the covid-19 pandemic, Higgins is concerned about the potential for spreading the virus in the facility.
The next step, according to Higgins, is for the vendors to start making the locks and the control panel. New jail locks were funded through a Jan. 26 ordinance that set aside $1.9 million.
"Of course, these locks aren't sitting on a shelf anywhere," Higgins said. "They're having to be manufactured, so the company will start manufacturing the locks, and we'll start the process when they're about ready to do an install."
Although the funds will likely be passed this month, Hutchens said it may be a year before things are even started to be put into place.
"The jail locks, from the day they start on it is 206 days until completion," Hutchens said. "But there's a 10- to 12-week lead time on it, so you might as well say a year. It's going to be the same thing with the control panel. That's not something you can just run down and buy that they have sitting on the shelf."
The funds for the locks, which interact with the system, were set in January, according to Hutchens. Since the locks will interact with the control panel, the parties making the locks and control panels have met to ensure the systems worktogether.
"There's only a couple companies in the country that [make control panels]," Hutchens said. "There's only a couple of companies that make jail locks. They've met, so it will all integrate and go together."
When the time comes to install the new equipment, Higgins said the jail hopes to remain with one unit open so the workers can do a whole unit at once then move to the next.
"We're in a pretty good position right now with our population staying right about 1,000 or less which allows us to have an open unit," Higgins said. "That's an ideal situation for the companies to come in and be able to replace all the locks in one unit."
The funding does not fix all the Ssheriff's concerns with the facility.
At the Quorum Court meeting Tuesday, Hutchens was asked about whether there were resources to get new generators for the facility.
With the sheriff wanting the generators to be able to run everything in case of a power outage, Hutchens said it would take years for that idea to become a reality.
"It's going to be the equivalent of rewiring that whole building, so right now, no," Hutchens said during the meeting. "And if we started on it now, I'd be talking to y'all in the next few years when we finished it. So, we're going to have to look to get that plan a little different for how that's going to work."
"control" - Google News
February 15, 2021 at 05:46PM
https://ift.tt/3dgiXvt
Funds advance for new control panel at lockup - Arkansas Online
"control" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bY2j0m
https://ift.tt/2KQD83I
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Funds advance for new control panel at lockup - Arkansas Online"
Post a Comment