Marshall County Sheriff Matt Hassel was asked to weigh in on the proposed expansion at the Jail during a joint session with County Commissioners and Council members last week.
The architecture firm RQAW is being consulted for this project to address over crowding issues at the jail. Hassel commented that it’s been a collaborative conversation thus far and that various staff members have been able to participate in the process.
He explained, “My captain who acts as my Jail Commander, our Chief Jailer, our Records and Assistant Chief Jailer were all in these meetings.”
As previously reported, the plans presented by RQAW call for the addition of 320 new beds, with a portion of those going into four-man cells and others being incorporated into dormitory style units. The dorm-style living wouldn’t be as restricted as the cells and would involve some additional privileges.
While there were some initial reservations about this idea, Hassel said staff is coming around after realizing it will be similar to current practices.
Hassel explained, “As I look at it now, we are using both rec-rooms as dormitory rooms and our inmate-workers room is a dormitory-style room. I think we’ll have enough clientele that we can safely put together and keep my staff safe.”
He added that this would be a good opportunity to expand upon an incentive program that’s currently in place.
Hassel noted, “I also like the incentive program, I can see how that would work, we kind of have that going on now in one of our rec-rooms that’s being used as a dormitory.”
Sheriff Hassel noted that the dorm-style room is also beneficial for treatment programs within the facility. Rather than having to transfer multiple inmates to various different classrooms, the instructors could be brought directly to their students.
He mentioned, “The therapists and counselors doing the treatment, we just let them into the dorm and they can work with the inmates all together, all the inmates are in the same program and I can see the inmates being able to follow up with each other after the program finishes.”
Hassel added that the dorms are least expensive housing type to construct and they house the most people.
