In the coming months, the new Greene County Jail will officially open in northwest Springfield.
Located offDivision Street near the Springfield-Branson National Airport, the new jail will allow the county to hold more than 1,200 inmates.
With the years-long construction process expected to be completed soon, the Greene County Sheriff’s Office is reaching out to the community to answer their questions and try toease their concerns.
On Thursday evening, Sheriff Jim Arnott and other department brass took over the cafeteria in Willard South Elementary School to get feedback from citizens and offer an update on construction and recruitment efforts.
‘Everything is on time, on budget’
Though not giving a definitive “opening day,” Arnott did stress that the construction of the jail was on schedule.
“Everything is on time and on budget,” Arnottsaid. “We don’t have a solid move-in date though.”
Arnott said the target time frame is within the next couple of months for operations to begin at the new jail, but they were still waiting on some permits to wrap things up.
“We’re looking at April, May, depending on some issues with building permits,” Arnott said. “Just like anybody else, we don’t get an exception on that.”
Arnott also discussed what design improvements the $150 million budget has allowed them to make in the new jail,includingsmaller pods that “bring everything to the inmates” rather than making the inmates move to get to food and activities.
“In the old jail, inmates move freely throughout the facility,” he said. “In the new facility, we bring everything to the inmates in the pod.Visitation, food, it all stays within the pods.”
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He added the new design will allow for a system that is easier on detention officers. According to Arnott, in the current jail, detention officers spend a 12-hour shift in one pod of 150 inmates. They can’t leave, not even to use the bathroom.
“They’re basically in prison for 12 hours of shift,” he said. “It's not a happy environment.”
Arnott said in the new jail, teams of two will man the 52-man pods, but they will rotate every twohours between patrolling the pod and manning a booth to monitor the inmates via cameras. He said one of the major goals of the new jail was to create an environment that would be less stressful for staff.
“It can be a depressing environment,” he said. “We want a depressing environment because we want people to go ‘I don’t want to come back,’but we don't want it depressing for our staff.”
Greene County Jail to offer rides to newly released prisoners
Community members at the meeting brought up concerns about the proximity of the jail to Willard South Elementary, which is roughly 2 miles away from the new jail, and the safety issues that could pose.
Arnott and his deputiestried to ease those fears by pointing out that the current Greene County Jail has more than 20 schools within 2 two miles of it.
“We have not had any inmate problems in those schools,” Arnott said. “As far back as I can remember.”
Community members also had concerns about newly released prisoners wandering around the area attempting to get back home.
Arnott said while in his experience most inmates are picked up by a friend or family member, they are already taking steps to address the potential issue by planning to give inmates access to a free phone before their release, making the question of how they will get home a part of the release paperwork and even working to partner with cab companies to give rides to the newly released inmates.
“Now I want to put a caveat on that,” Arnott said. “We don’t have control of them once they leave. If they choose to walk, they can do that, but we are going to offer this program.”
He said that the sheriff’s office was still working out some details on that front.
New jail still 62 detention officers short
The biggest discussion of the night revolved around the continued staffing shortages the jail is facing as it approaches opening. Arnott said the new jail is still 62 detention officers short of where they want to be.
“We’re looking to hire the 62 fairly quick,” he said. “We want to get them trained, which will take several months to do that, and then get them integrated into the system.”
Arnott said if they cannot get the staffing up to where it needs to be, they will have to go to “plan B” when the jail opens, which will include lockdowns and restricted movements for the inmates.
“We do have a backup plan; hopefully we won’t have to use it,” Arnott said. “It’s not a good thing to go into a new facility when you’re understaffed.”
More:Greene County needs to hire 150 more for the new jail — but almost no one's applying
In recent months, like most law enforcement agencies in the country, the Greene County Sheriff’s Office has been ramping up recruitment efforts to try to fill the open positions. Those include raising the salary of deputies and also including an extra stipend for those willing to work the night shift.
“We have always been either overpopulated or understaffed,” Arnott said. “A majority of the time we have been overpopulated for the staff that we have. We have now kind of bridged that gap where we have the funding to do it, we just can’t get some people.”
Additionally, Arnott said after the new jail opens, the sheriff’s office while be starting up its own academy where detention officers can take classes through the sheriff’s office at the jail for free to become patrol deputies.
“If they want to advance in a different direction, they will now have the ability to do that, right now they don’t have that,” he said. “They have to take off work and go to the academy, and not get paid during that time.”
Arnott added the academy, which will take classes of 15 to 20 detention officers, will have a three-year contract attached to it requiring the graduates to stay with the department for at least three years or they will have to reimburse the department for the cost of attending the academy.
What happens to the old jail?
While having the answerto almost every question of the night, one of the biggest ones Arnott was unable to answer was what happens to the oldjail near downtown Springfield once the new one opens.
“I have no idea,” he said.
According to Arnott, it will be up to the County Commission to determine what happens to that space.
“I know they have asked a consultant to come in and look at the building,” Arnottsaid. “Try to make some decisions as to what can be repurposed.”
However, Arnott did say they planned to keep open a section of the old jail to hold up to 100 inmateswhen they are waiting to go to court hearings.
Jordan Meier covers public safety for the Springfield News-Leader. Contact her at jmeier@news-leader.com,or on Twitter @Jordan_Meier644.
