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The county will make upgrades to 64 pods.
The work includes “putting proxy paint on the walls, changing all the plumbing traps and going through and adjusting all the locks on the doors, so, they are secure,” Swank said.
They are also repairing broken lights in the cells. Workers have been making repairs on the pods for the past month and the director says it will take all summer.
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Work will also be done on the jail’s plumbing system. In March, the jail lost hot water.
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One of the boilers had a faulty heat exchanger. The replacement had to be custom made because of the age of the system.
“We have put two new heat exchangers in the domestic water boilers and that problem has been solved,” Swank said.
It takes about eight weeks for a pod to be completed. Once it is finished, Clark County Sheriff Deborah Burchett and other members of her staff, inspect it and approve it for reopening.
The changes will make it a better environment for the inmates and staff.
However, the changes will not fix a major problem: overcrowding.
Last July, three men were charged with aggravated riot. They complained about the lack of space.
A Clark County deputy was trying to lock down a pod when inmates informed him they were not happy with the number of men housed in that area.
The deputy informed the inmates, Bobbie Lee Hagen,29, Samuel Lee Harold, 33, and John Hicks, 27, according to court documents, that other areas had more inmates. They asked to speak to a “sarge.” The officer stated he would call for one as soon as the inmates complied with orders given. They begin to yell and refused stop until a commanding officer arrived.
That incident happened after pods under the jail were closed for safety and security.
The pods — former shipping containers that were modified to house about 50 inmates — have been beneath the jail for more than a decade, according to Lt. Michael Young, Clark County Jail administrator.
They were brought in as a temporary place for juvenile inmates when that detention center was undergoing construction, he said, but as the jail population grew, nonviolent inmates were moved there.
The law enforcement agency has made a request for proposals for a feasibility study that would include examining the need for a new jail.
Clark County commissioners passed a resolution earlier this year permitting the sheriff’s office to donate the pods. However, commissioners voted unanimously a short time later to rescind that resolution after speaking with Clark County Common Pleas Court Presiding Judge Tom Capper about an increase in inmates.
The results of the study will be released in the coming year.
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