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| Prescott jail closed, but not idle |
| By Bruce Colbert |
| Published: 04/03/2009 |
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PRESCOTT - It wasn't quite as simple as turning off the lights and locking the doors, but closing the Prescott Detention Center on Gurley Street was not quite as daunting as Detention Services Captain Ted Symonds thought it would be. "I have never been involved with closing a jail before, so we were all figuring it out as we went," Symonds said during a tour Wednesday of the nearly vacant jail. "But it has been an incredibly smooth transition." After the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors voted Jan. 5 to close the Prescott jail, which opened in 1980, detention officers started transferring small groups of inmates each week to the Camp Verde Detention Center, where all of the county's inmates now are housed. "The easiest part of closing was transferring the inmates," Symonds said. "We moved them in increments for a smooth transition." Inmate workers scrubbed, polished and added a fresh coat of paint to the now-vacant upstairs jail cells. For possible use in the future, detention staff stored mattresses, inmate jumpsuits and restraint gear. Because the Camp Verde jail is fully operational and capable of housing as many as 644 criminals, its staff does not need the Prescott jail's leftovers. Symonds said he is moving the Live Scan fingerprint machine previously used for booking suspects to the Camp Verde jail, but not much else. On Wednesday, detention officers, medical staff and cooks scurried about carrying boxes and emptying desk drawers. "They took my desk this morning," Becky Payne, the health services administrator for the jail, said while shuffling papers on the floor of her former office. She said that she lost six employees because of the move. The county is not laying off detention staff because of the move, Symonds said. About 46 Prescott jail employees are transferring to the Camp Verde jail, including six detention officers who recently graduated from the detention academy, Detention Services Commander John Russell added. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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