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| Visitors receive tour of new jail |
| By bgdailynews.com |
| Published: 05/16/2011 |
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GLASGOW — Dozens of people filed through the new Barren County Detention Center on Sunday to take their first look at the new facility. Construction was recently completed by Alliance Corp. of Glasgow on the new jail at 201 Samson St. Barren County Jailer Matt Mutter, taking a moment away from guiding visitors through the jail, said inmates will be transferred there from the old facility Tuesday. “By Tuesday night, we should be completely moved into our new facility,” Mutter said. The 33,000-square-foot, 178-bed jail replaces a building that opened in the 1970s and has been operating at a reduced capacity since a faulty air cleaning system discovered during a 2008 inspection by the Kentucky Department of Corrections forced the closure of a wing of the facility. The closure reduced the jail’s capacity to 109 beds, and led to a debate among members of the Barren Fiscal Court about how to address overcrowding. The option of building the new jail won out over renovating the older facility. As of Sunday, though, Mutter was overseeing 186 inmates, so by the time all the inmates occupy the new facility Tuesday, the jail is expected to be over capacity. “That’s not something that was a really big surprise to us,” Mutter said. Inmates and employees are not expected to be quite as cramped in the new jail, which includes a large kitchen, laundry room and recreation yard. State and county inmates will be housed separately, Mutter said. Dorms in the men’s and women’s wings of the jail feature bunk beds, a restroom and shower, a metal table with small seats fastened to it and a small TV controlled by jail staff. There are also banks of individual cells for maximum-security inmates, which lead into a hallway that has a shower, toilet and phone. Barren County Judge-Executive Davie Greer said the kitchen, laundry room and mechanical room in the new jail were designed by JKS Architects of Hopkinsville so that they would not have to be touched if an expansion at the jail is required. “They were built for an addition of 200 cells,” Greer said. Mutter said the features at the new jail that he appreciates are the presence of more than 100 security cameras throughout the facility and the fact that the reception area is separate from the control area and will shut down at 4 p.m. during the week. The camera system is monitored in a control room near where new inmates are booked and processed. “If you’re not in the restroom, you’re going to be on camera somewhere,” Mutter said. The fate of the older jail has not yet been determined. Greer said the closed wing of that facility has been used by the local ambulance service to store documents. Read More. |
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