Peoria County’s jail facilities are overdue for major upgrades. Its security software and basic infrastructure haven’t been updated since it opened in 1985.
The first item on the jail’s long list of upgrades is the Central Control. It’s a room paneled with monitors and flashing buttons. Superintendent Brian Asbell calls it the “communication hub.”
“Our officer that’s stationed up here, he monitors all inmate movement through cameras, we have right now 112 cameras throughout the campus,” Asbell said.
Much of the jail’s electrical equipment has been around since the jail was built 30 years ago. Asbell says some of the original vendors no longer exist, making repairs difficult, if not impossible.
The jail superintendent says the world of IT has also moved light years ahead in the last three decades. Asbell says today there are sophisticated hardware systems and software programs that offer wireless tablet technology.
“So the officers when they work on their guard stations, they’ll have the capability of walking around their area with a tablet," Asbell said. They can use the wireless technology to start opening the doors, controlling the TV, controlling the shower, controlling the lights.”
But some of the upgrades are more primary to the function of a jail -- like the locks on cell doors.
“It's a big safety problem we have right now," Asbell said. "In some of the cells, inmates can use a piece of paper, or cardboard or a spoon from dinner to manipulate the lock and get out of their cell.”
Asbell says inmates walk out of the of their cells every day.
That can pose a danger to officers and potentially other inmates, Asbell said.
“We have bad people in jail. I don’t mean speeders and drunken drivers and people who steal and do a little drugs. We have people that have committed multiple murders. Can it present a problem for the staff? And it can.”
The improvements are not happening as quickly as the sheriff would like. McCoy says that may be because he’s elected to be responsible for the Sheriff’s Department, and the jail is only one part of a whole host of county operations board members must consider.
Still, Peoria County Board Chairman Andrew Rand says he visits the jail.
“Often. I visit it more probably than most county board members, The jail itself is in good shape.”
But the chairman says he had no idea that inmates are jimmying the locks.
“I’ve not seen a lock or a cell lock that’s broken out of. That’s kinda newsy," Rand said. "I don’t think the sheriff has ever told me that.”
The County has budgeted for most of the items on the jail’s lengthy list of upgrades. Other significant items already included in the county’s plan are things like rehabbing the jail’s H-Vac and plumbing systems.
“It’s not because we want to have pretty jail or a nice jail," McCoy said. "We want to keep the inmates safe from each other and the employees safe here.”
But new cell locks cost about $5,000 each, with more than a million dollar price tag for all the locks needing immediate replacement.
That entire project doesn’t top the capital funding priorities list for the jail. The Sheriff says in tough economic times, jail upgrades are competing with many county needs.
"Peoria County is no different than any other county right now, we’re struggling, and so, can we make things do? Sure, we can make things do,” McCoy said.
Sheriff McCoy says his agency plans to replace between 30 and 50 cell locks by the end of this year. That would leave about 200 jail cells still in immediate need of new locks.
But it’s also worth noting: The county has needed to delay the scheduled overhaul and expansion of the kitchen and laundry facilities that are handling twice the population they were designed for. Those projects were bumped back because the cost of replacing the central control system is higher than planned.