Jail Issues Front and Center this Week

With the ongoing media spotlight on the jail, and in the wake of a congressional letter of inquiry on the matter---issues at Escambia County's Correctional facilities will take front and center stage this week.

The letter, addressed to the administrator and the sheriff, will be answered by administrator Wes Moreno this week.  The sheriff has already submitted and made public his response.

Yes, as illustrated in the pictures I have previously submitted in earlier blogs and am attaching to this post---the conditions within the old jail are unacceptable.  Yes, these are human beings and must be controlled in custody and care of our staff within safe and sanitary conditions.  Sleeping on the ground next to a stinking, leaking overfolwing toilet is something I never thought I'd see in Escambia County--I doubt you'd even find this in most third world countries  (see below)

Sadly, this condition is a reality.  Here.  Not in Guatemala, Honduras, Chad, or Eritrea--here, in Escambia.

And mold and filthy, non-serviced and maintained ductwork--to boot.  (see below).

So no,  I'm not interested in spending another nickel, not one red cent, on the old jail.  As I was directly quoted saying in Sunday's paper--I want to demo that facility and forget it ever existed.    Because it is past the point of salvage--and to attempt a temporary fix would be akin to using a band aid on a sucking chest wound.  Too many decades with feckless maintenance and care, and too many liabilities if we keep it open.  Mold.  Need I say more?

So we MUST move forward with that jail in the rear view.  ASAP.

To that end, our administrator will be bringing a plan for the board's consideration this week at our Thursday committee of the whole  (COW) meeting to do the following:

1. An action plan to, as quickly as practicable,  to move personnel and inmates from the areas where facility conditions are borderline unacceptable within our corrections department.
2. a plan to enact a near-term strategy to harden other existing county owned corrections facilities to safely allow the movement and relocation of all prisoners out of our old jail and into acceptable new buildings/spaces.
3. Utilize the $9 Million we (BOCC) have allocated toward old-jail repairs to quickly implement #1 and #2 above.

 

Additional guidance and information, as well as the way forward, will be discussed between staff, the board, and the administrator at the board’s committee of the whole meeting this Thursday, March 10^th at 0900.