Commissioners Approve More County Jail Improvements

SNOW HILL – Improvements to the Worcester County Jail will move forward following approval by elected officials last week.

The Worcester County Commissioners voted 6-1 to approve spending more than $600,000 to complete a second phase of improvements at the Worcester County Jail.

“It’s replacement of heating and ventilation that’s 40 years old,” said Bill Bradshaw, the county’s engineer.

Bradshaw presented the commissioners with a $582,000 proposal from Gipe Engineering for the continuation of the phased jail improvement project that began in 2017. The work primarily includes replacement of the 1980s heating and ventilation units, replacement of corridor and office heating and air conditioning units, the addition of temperature controls and the installation of HVAC in the program area room. The project does not include the addition of air conditioning in the housing units.

To support the Gipe proposal, the county will have to perform testing such as roof sampling and moisture scanning, which Bradshaw estimates will cost an additional $25,000. He said the project, which will take three to four years, would be paid for through fund balance.

Commissioner Bud Church questioned whether there was a need for air conditioning in the jail’s housing units, which are currently not cooled.

“During the heat wave we had, it was terrible,” Church said. “They were clustering them, trying to put them here, put them there. I’m concerned about that. When you’re moving inmates out of cells to put them in an area that has some cooling, you have a bunch of them, I think that’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

Warden Donna Bounds confirmed that right now, the only inmate areas that have air conditioning are the medical housing and intake areas.

“All other units just have ventilation,” she said.

Church asked if the lack of cooling could cause problems at the jail. Bounds said the temperature in inmate housing that morning had been 85 degrees.

“The heat doesn’t dissipate within the facility even though the outside temperature goes down,” she said. “I do have some concerns for the inmate population. They do struggle with air flow. We have installed industrial fans to the point that we have exhausted all electrical outlets. There’s nothing else physically we can do to bring the temperature down at this point.”

When Church inquired if the addition of air conditioning was possible in the future, Bounds said there would have to be more studies and that there was also the cost factor to consider.

Church asked if the clustering of inmates in cooler areas could lead to a bad situation.

“I have concerns for not only the inmate population but also most importantly my staff,” Bounds said.

Commissioner Jim Bunting said the current proposal did not address the inmate housing units at all.

“It seems like a heck of a lot of money for just replacing stuff,” he said.

Commissioner Joe Mitrecic pointed out that Eastern Correctional Institution and the Somerset County Detention Center did not have air-conditioned housing units.

“This is not unusual that our jail does not have air-conditioned cells,” he said.

Chief Administrative Officer Harold Higgins said that in Maryland, about half of the correctional facilities had air-conditioned inmate cells. He said federal funds could not be used for air conditioning.

“It becomes the entire responsibility of the county,” he said.

The commissioners voted 6-1, with Bunting opposed, to move ahead with the jail improvements.

About The Author: Charlene Sharpe

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Charlene Sharpe has been with The Dispatch since 2014. A graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and the University of Richmond, she spent seven years with the Delmarva Media Group before joining the team at The Dispatch.