Annual inspection completed July 21
Greene County sheriff Steve Haupert suggested to the county supervisors that they begin to think about building a new jail as he presented the report from the annual jail inspection on Monday.
The 41-year-old jail came through the inspection well, with three recommendations for improvement.
Inspector Delbert Longley noted that the jail’s exercise area is in the basement, requiring prisoners to be moved from the secured jail area through non-secured areas of the office. That movement creates safety and security issues for the staff, public, and prisoners.
Visitation of prisoners is an issue, as prisoners are moved through unsecured areas of the jail and visitors are allowed in the office area. The inspector noted that video visitation may be a viable option to meet future needs.
The third recommendation was to work toward having all dispatchers cross-trained as jailers. Several of the county’s dispatchers are already cross-trained, but not all. It would require a 40-hour school with 20-hour updates annually.
“Greene County jail is an older facility that is clean and well-managed, but is outdated and does not meet the current needs of the prisoners, staff or the public,” Longley wrote.
“We’ve been talking about that for years,” Haupert said about Longley’s statement that the jail is outdated. “We probably need to plan toward that, like we’ve talked, but there isn’t a real urgency, like next year that everything has to be done. It’s working… It’s not falling apart at the seams. It just takes maintenance.”
