The Jail Support Division provides a wide variety of efficient service to citizens, prisoners, and staff. Our continuing mission is to provide infrastructure and support to operations in all other Jail Divisions, as well as to support other Sheriff’s Office and Unified Police Department units as necessary. Some of the services provided are Visiting and Telephones, Mail and Commissary, Warehouse and Delivery, Computer Technical Support, and a complete range of Maintenance services, including electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, metal and wood fabrication, grounds-keeping, snow removal, and many others.
The Metro Jail, now nearing its twelfth birthday, is a technically advanced and complex facility to manage. The fast-changing technologies of today require that we remain abreast of current trends and advancements. We are continually maintaining, upgrading, and replacing equipment of all types to ensure that we maintain our high standards in this industry. There are over 500 computers in use throughout the Jail and we are continuing the practice of upgrading or replacing them every three years so that current technology is always close to the fingers of our staff. These computers are supported by a dedicated team of officers who comprise our Computer Liaison staff. The seventeen sworn and three civilian Clothing and Laundry staff previously assigned to Jail Support were absorbed into the Processing Division for increased operational efficiency late in the year.
In November, after three years of preparation, we installed a new jail management system to replace one written in-house nearly twenty-two years ago. The prior system was a text based mainframe application that, while very user friendly for input, was totally lacking in reporting capabilities and flexibility to adapt to changing technologies and stakeholder needs. This project was completed after many thousands of hours of data conversion, database configuration, program modification, hardware installation and configuration, and hundreds of hours of hands-on training for staff, both inside the Sheriff’s Office and for other agencies. We were also proud of the fiscal responsibility shown by coming in at nearly three million dollars under the original budget. Ongoing program and system maintenance, help desk functions, and all user access is also managed by the Computer Liaison staff.
All Division budgets were very tight again this year and we delayed those projects that weren’t absolutely crucial to the facility infrastructure. We also lobbied for numerous capital improvement projects to enhance the functionality of the Jail core functions. One such project was the replacement of a kitchen dishwasher which was accomplished by Maintenance staff doing much of the preparation work to conserve funds. We are continuing the replacement of the prisoner visiting railing areas which were re-designed and replaced to discourage prisoners from self-harm. A project to replace the wall and floor coatings in prisoner showers continues into its seventh year and creative Maintenance personnel designed and constructed numerous counters and work areas for the use of both Jail and Programs Unit staff. By carefully monitoring contracts and warranty agreements, over one million dollars in funding was conserved for redirection to other needs. Along with all of this activity, Maintenance staff completed nearly 21,000 work orders during the year for repair projects.
With the use of a system of motorized tugs and carts, our Warehouse and Delivery staff are constantly in motion throughout the facility, picking up and delivering a wide variety of commodities. Supplies, laundry, food, and trash pickups are all managed efficiently and without fanfare. In 2009, we delivered 15,764 cases of janitorial supplies, replaced 218 prisoner mattresses, moved over 3.4 million pounds of laundry, and delivered over 2.34 million prisoner meals. In providing that food, we also delivered 1,704 pallets of food to the kitchen. We delivered 26,208 cases of prisoner commissary orders, hauled 755 tons of trash, managed 23.4 tons of shredded documents, and recycled over 26.3 tons of cardboard boxes and plastic milk containers, making a significant contribution to a greener and cleaner environment for all.
Our contract for prisoner commissary purchases is coordinated with staff from the Keefe Company. Our commissary staff managed over 84,000 orders during 2009, and continually evaluate and modify the number of items made available for purchase by prisoners, to provide more variety and better value. One recent change was to separately purchase and distribute the items normally provided to both incoming and indigent prisoners by way of a welfare type package. By reducing the waste caused by thousands of discarded bags each week and unwanted items being thrown away, we will recover savings of over $23,000 each year. This doesn’t even account for the reduced cost, since we no longer pay a markup fee to a vendor for assembling the items into a bag for distribution. Our savings on this program alone should approach $40,000 annually.
Our Visiting staff facilitated over 80,000 visits in 2009, providing a critical service to prisoners and the public by ensuring that family and friend relationships are not forgotten just because someone is in Jail. This includes over 10,000 visits made by clergy members, attorneys, and other professional visitors. Another service vital to assisting prisoners in retaining links to the outside world is our mail service. The Commissary and Mail staff dealt with nearly 200,000 pieces of mail in 2009, each of which needed to be inspected for unapproved contraband before being delivered. Facilitating timely delivery of personal and legal mail is a responsibility we do not take lightly. We are currently adding the ability for the public and prisoners to exchange e-mail messages, reducing costs to the Jail, the public, and the prisoners, while allowing two-way communications to take place in a single day, instead of several days using the U.S. Postal Service.
Staffing allocations for 2009 were one Captain, one Lieutenant, two civilian supervisors, six civilian assistant supervisors, fifty-four civilian staff, and two sworn Officers.