County officials tour new detention center
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 7, 2016 1:46 PM
News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Kendall Lee, left, director of the Carey Winders Detention Center, shows a group of Wayne County commissioners around the newly constructed jail on Tuesday.
Several of those touring the nearly completed Carey A. Winders Detention Center Tuesday morning joked that they did not like the sound of the heavy cell door slamming shut -- even though they were not inside it.
And in a passing reference to the movie "Shawshank Redemption," one joked that the solid construction meant no one would be digging their way out with a spoon.
The approximately $10 million jail has three dorm-style wings, each capable of housing 64 inmates, and one wing of 15 double cells.
There are two control rooms, each able to monitor two wings.
"The cells are basically a solid piece of steel brought in, set in place by a forklift and welded to the floor," said Jeremiah Daniels, vice president of operations for Daniels and Daniels Construction Co. that is building the jail. "All of the furniture inside is molded into the wall. It is really no way to tear it up that we can figure out. You can't rip something off the wall or try to damage anything that way."
Utility runs are located behind each of the wings. Work can be done without coming in contact with an inmate, and there is no concern about having tools, Daniels said.
Also, water flow in the lavatories and toilets can be shut off from the control rooms so that inmates cannot cause them to overflow, he said.
It has been a year since Daniels and Daniels Construction Co. began work on the 38,500-square-foot, single-story, 218-bed jail located on county-owned property on North William Street.
The project is expected to be completed within the next two months, followed about 30 days later with inmates being moved in.
Wayne County commissioners toured the jail Tuesday following their board meeting.
"We are still on target to finish toward the end of October, move in sometime mid-to-late November," County Manager George Wood told commissioners during the meeting. "They (Sheriff's Office) will be doing some training. We have had people hired who are jailers that are working in the other jail, but we have got to train them on the operation of the jail.
"As you recall, part of our contract with (project architect) Moseley is that they are to do that training. So we have got to do that and then we can finally open it up. It may be December before we take it over and start putting prisoners in there."
The project has been a great process for Daniels and Daniels, Daniels, said.
"We have been thrilled to work with the county," he said. "We really worked well with Moseley.
"We are excited to be a part of this project. We will be finishing up here in the next couple of months, ready to turn this project over on time to the county."
That will be October or early November and will somewhat depend on getting through state inspections, he said.
"That process could take up to a couple of weeks to do," Daniels said. "The month of September, we are really focusing on finishes. You see these guys are finishing the floors. They are doing that polished concrete finish to them right now. We have started painting. There is a little sheetrock finishing to do, but that is pretty well done.
"Soon we will be dropping the rest of the ceiling tiles. This place will clean up pretty quickly. All of the rough-ins are done. We have been starting up mechanical units. So really the month of September is going to be heavily focused on finishes."
Argyle, the security detention contractor for the project, will be working on its systems -- the bulk of the project remaining to be done, Daniels said.
During October it will be a matter of working through a punch list and "tweaking" the facility out and getting it ready to turn over to the county, Daniels said.
Contractually, the company has until Oct. 24 to be substantially complete.
Prior to starting the project the company had to demolish the old Masons department store building, take out some of the old parking lot and shift some overhead utility lines south.
Detention officers are being trained, but otherwise the Sheriff's Office cannot proceed with additional training until the move into the facility, Sheriff Larry Pierce said.
"Basically it is going to be a little different the way it is set up," he said. "It is going to be the majority of the inmates will be in dormitory-style which is you have open rooms. There will be more inmates per unit than what we have now in the dormitory setting. So we have just got to learn to deal with that as far as the flow of things.
"Your basic operations of your control center will be a little different. You have just got to have all of your shifts and multiple people on each shift trained to be able to make their observations in a new facility."
Also, all of the laundry for both facilities will be done at the new jail, Pierce said.
"Right now it is all being sent out to be done so there is just a logistical part to be done -- a whole new operation we have got to train on," he said.
Once the county accepts the building it will be at least 30 days before inmates would be moved into the facility, Pierce said.
The meals will still be prepared at the existing jail and taken to the new one that has a warming kitchen. Working out the food will be transferred and served are to be worked out, Pierce said.
A full kitchen was not included in the plans because of a future plan to build a larger jail on the same site and that would include a kitchen large enough to accommodate both facilities.
The county is paying cash for the jail that is the first phase of a larger envisioned judicial center that includes construction of a larger jail that will be connected to the satellite jail through a secure corridor.
No money has been earmarked, nor timetable established, for that project.
Once occupied, the county is expecting to eliminate the nearly $900,000 it is now paying annually to house inmates in other county jails because of chronic overcrowding at the existing jail.
As of Tuesday, the county was housing 49 inmates in other jails because of overcrowding, Pierce said.
With the new jail, the county anticipates having extra space that it can rent to other counties.
The jail includes areas for medical screening and for attorneys to meet with clients.