You don’t see a great deal of activity on the outside of the new Carroll County jail, but Sheriff, Ken Pingrey, says the finishing touches are underway on the inside.
The construction part of this project alone has been going on for about two years now. Pingrey says he was skeptical about predictions on how long a building of this scope would take.
He says once they get the interior buttoned down, they are hoping to be able to open the building to the general public for tours prior to populating it with prisoners.
Pingrey adds delays could have been much worse with the pandemic and they are really only waiting on a few items to come in now. As far as staffing for the new jail, Pingrey says they are currently advertising for one more jailer.
He describes how the new command center is set up for those jailers.
Jail capacity is 44 without counting the three holding cells and this can easily expand to 52 if necessary. By comparison, they went from three jail doors to 86 electronically-controlled doors and from a handful of cameras to around 212. It is state of the art and they will be able to more securely move prisoners, which was one of the major issues when discussions began. Being attached to the courthouse will allow the prisoner to be moved by a private elevator up one floor to the courtroom instead of the way it is done now, down the public hallways and in the public elevator. Carroll Broadcasting will bring you more details on any tours when that information becomes available.
Click on image below TWO times to bring to full size:
