County Council goes to jail
A prisoner might disagree, but this new jail is pretty nice.
Construction is nearing completion on the $14.5 million Cache County Sheriff’s Complex on the west side of Logan, with the Sheriff’s Office expecting to move in sometime in March.
“We’re very pleased with the way this was designed and the way it has all come together,” said Sheriff Lynn Nelson during a tour of the facility for the Cache County Council Tuesday.
The new facility will provide much-needed space for the Sheriff’s Office and allow for inmates to have a little more room to move about.
“At our current jail, a guy sitting at the table can hand you a sandwich while you’re sitting on the can,” Nelson said.
The new jail area, called a pod, has seven sections on its first two levels that each will hold 24 inmates. The third level of the facility will be for inmates with work release duties or those who will do any work outside the jail, said Lt. Kim Cheshire of the Sheriff’s Office.
There are 12 cells in each section of the first two levels and each cell has space for two inmates.
“If we have to bring our wives with us will we get a cell together?” asked Cache County Executive Lynn Lemon. Cheshire told Lemon, “Yes.”
Along with more space, the Sheriff’s Office and inmates will be able to use new technology to help run and efficient and safe jail.
In each section of the jail two booths have been set up for inmates to visit with jail outsiders. In the old jail, inmates had to be moved from the cell area to a visitation area, Nelson said, but in the new jail the visits will take place with computer monitors and video cameras.
The cutting edge of technology can also be found in the control room. Windows that can see inside every section of the pod surround the room, but anyone in the control room can look at
monitors displaying views from the 68 cameras in the jail.
“One of the nice things is, there is not a place an inmate can hide,” Nelson said. In the old facility inmates could be hidden from a person or camera for 30 minutes because of the design of the facility, he said.
The control room also has four touch screen monitors that control everything in the jail from opening cell doors to electricity. Jail employees have been training to operate the new equipment six days a week, eight hours a day, Cheshire said.
Cheshire said the office has been anticipating next month’s opening of the facility for some time.
“I’ve worked for the Sheriff’s Office for 25 years,” he said. “So I’ve only been looking forward to this for 24 years.”
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