New jail to incorporate new technology, safety

The future Vernon County jail, slated to be operational sometime in early 2009, will incorporate many new technologies for convenience and safety. One of the biggest upgrades to the facility will be the installation of fiber-optic lines.

These lines will allow several new features including one that Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman is particularly excited about, video arraignment and visitation. Already utilized by many other Missouri correctional institutions, video arraignment eliminates the need for transportation of inmates from the jail to the courthouse for trials.

According to Peckman and Gary Herstein, Nevada Public Safety supervisor, the most dangerous time for jailers and sheriff department employees is when they are chaperoning convicts from one location to another, outside the jail. During this time, inmates outnumber guards and have increased freedom to attack or attempted escape since there are no walls or bars to help restrain them.

"We get some that are extremely angry," said Peckman, referring to those in custody, "we had one that ran out of the courtroom and tried to jump over the stair rail. He was in shackles and we caught him, so he just kind of dangled there. That was on a busy court day, so a lot of people saw it happen."

Video arraignment will eliminate this danger by offering the courts a means of contact with the detainee from the jail. The new fiber-optic cable will carry a live audio and video feed from a remote room in the jail. The inmates being tried can interact with the judge and attorneys as though they were in the courtroom.

The second part of this system is the video visitation. The new jail will have separate rooms for convicts and visitors to sit and speak through a video monitor and microphone. Similar to the old system where the inmate and visitor are separated by a glass wall, the new system will allow visual and verbal contact. However that is where the similarities end.

The new operation keeps the inmate near their cell and separates them from the visitor with walls of concrete not glass. If a prisoner were to become upset by a visit, the feed linking the two monitors can be remotely terminated and the prisoner moved back to their cell. Guards will be able to stop any provoking activity from either the inmate or visitor with a simple flick of a switch.

Beyond the issues of safety the new setup will also be far more convenient for jailers. It cuts back on searches of inmates which is especially important when it comes to women. Finding appropriate staff to conduct searches of women detainees can be challenging explains Peckman, "We have to pull someone away from another duty to take care of it."

By making less trips outside of the jail, guards do not need to worry as much about what inmates are carrying on their person.

This new system also removes the reason to use a transportation vehicle in some circumstances, since the jails new location will be much further away from the courthouse, prisoners could no longer be simply walked to their hearings. This means a vehicle would be a necessary upgrade, which would raise the jail's expenses considerably if video arraignment were not used.

The entire system is set to be operational upon the opening of the new jail.

While exact monetary figures are not yet available, the Vernon County Commission-ers office claimed that neighboring counties installed such facilities for less than $10,000.