BEHIND THE SCENES: A look at life inside the county jail

Every door is locked, each controlled by a button.

Lights are controlled with a button.

So are the TVs.

Lights go on at 4:30 a.m. and off at 10:30 p.m.

A shadowy figure perched in a room up above controls the lights, and the TVs and when occupants can go in and out of their bedrooms.

Meals are simple — bologna and stew are a couple entrees — and are passed through a hole in the door.

This is the Harvey County Detention Center, which usually is home to about 100 inmates, give or take, with the maximum population at 133.

Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton provided a tour of the facility, which was completed in 1997.

The tour began outside one of the entrances, where there are lockers in which officers can put their guns and weapons.

No one is allowed to have a firearm on them in the detention center, including jail deputies.

Detention center deputies carry Tasers only.

The master control room is just inside the entrance.

The room — full of control boards of buttons and lights — has controls for every lock and doorway in the facility.

A TV monitor shows a view of the garage, where inmates typically are brought in.

A board on the back wall lists every prisoner and what pod he or she is in.

The board uses color coding and other codes for such things as what county they are from and prisoners who need to be kept away from certain other prisoners for reasons such as fighting or they are on the same case and prosecutors don’t want them talking to one another.

Some of the seven “pods,” or housing areas, are geared for minimum or medium security, and some for more maximum security.

Sex offenders usually are housed together, and prisoners are segregated by sex.

The master control area looks out to the visiting area, where a plexiglass wall divides seats for prisoners and seats for their guests, with phones to communicate, reminiscent of scenes from movies and TV shows.

All phone calls are recorded. There is a separate room for inmates to consult with their attorneys, where conversations are not recorded.

The control area also borders the main lobby, where prisoners are booked.

They start in a small room to the side, where they empty pockets, and vital information is recorded on a booking sheet.

They then enter the larger lobby area, where they are fingerprinted and photographed. The lobby is surrounded by holding cells.

Holding cells can be used for those who need to be separated from the general population — perhaps on a suicide watch, or perhaps intoxicated.

Recently, jail staff has been separating out anyone with flu-like symptoms to hopefully avoid an H1N1 epidemic.

Down a hallway, another locked door leads to the trustees area, where trustees have their living quarters and restrooms.

Trustees are prisoners who have proven responsible enough to have a little more freedom and not be housed in one of the pods.

The area also is home to the laundry room and the kitchen.

Trustees do the laundry — piles of bright orange uniforms — and cook the meals, helping keep jail costs down.

Down another hallway is the library.

Shelves house the donated books, many religious in nature.

All donated books have to be thoroughly searched for contraband and can’t contain anything sharp, such as staples.

Books have to be checked out, and inmates only can have two at a time. Walton said he is usually looking for books; westerns go over really well.

The library also is home to several computers, recently donated by USD 373, which are being used to help inmates further their education, some even working to complete their GEDs.

The library also is used for religious and education programs, as well as alcohol and drug abuse programs.

Another set of hallways is outside of where prisoners go.

The “chase” contains a series of two-way mirrors that look into the pods, and every 45 minutes or so a deputy walks down the chase to check in on each pod, looking for contraband or other prohibited activities.

Next to the chase is a set of stairs leading to housing upstairs.

The housing deck is almost completely surrounded with windows looking down into the pods. As long as the lights aren’t on, the inmates see only a shadow where the deputy sits.

The deputy on duty — who will work a four-hour shift on housing — mans another large control board similar to the one in the master control area. There are controls for doors, TVs and lights.

The deputy has to keep track of prisoners coming and going for court or other reasons. Prisoners can buzz to be let into their bedrooms — the bedrooms usually are locked so prisoners can’t go back and forth.

Each pod has a lobby area, full of sparse tables and benches, as well as bedroom and bathroom areas.

Inmates read on the staircase leading up to the loft of bedrooms, or play cards at one of the tables, or do push-ups or watch TV.

The remote is a privilege, and possession of it has caused fights. (There also has been a fight over bologna.) Inmates have access to one hot pot per pod to make coffee and other items in.

Inmates can spend up to $40 a month through the commissary, ordering snacks, hygiene products and other items.

They fill out an order form, and items are delivered.

The money the inmates spend is their own, so they rely on friends and family to bring them money for their fund. Cigarettes are not on the order list, though, as smoking is not allowed.

Inmates have access to the gym area, and a garage door on the roof is pulled back to allow in sunshine on nice days.

The jail perks aren’t as nice as federal prison, Walton said, where they have access to the outdoors.

But most prisoners are there for the short term. These inmates are mostly those sentenced through municipal court, where sentences tend to be shorter as the crimes are misdemeanors.

Felonies go through district court, and people sentenced to longer terms in district court will be sent to prison, not jail.

But the jail also houses some federal prisoners, bringing in an extra source of revenue for the jail. And some inmates have been sentenced to as long as a year and a half in municipal court.

Many people who are arrested and taken to the detention center may never be housed.

For most crimes, a bond is set.

A DUI, for example, would have a $500 bond, and a person usually will bond out after going through the booking process.

The person may put up the $500 or get a bondsman, who usually will charge 10 percent of the bond. Felony crimes call for a $1,000 bond for each count.

For more serious crimes, however, such as murder, rape, aggravated indecent liberties or drug manufacturing, no bond is set, and a person has to appear before a judge, where a bond will be given out.

The jail generally charges $22 a day to house a prisoner, with higher fees for federal prisoners and some from outside the county. Walton said that is cheaper than many places, where fees can run about $50 a day.

Those fees pay for all sorts of expenses, including the outfits prisoners are given upon arrival (shoes, underwear and socks included); food; medication, which can cost about $2,000 a month; health care; and staffing, among other costs.

Detention center deputies must be at least 18 years old and pass background checks; they cannot have felony convictions or misdemeanors involving moral turpitude.

They go through training through the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office and go through a program of self defense, handcuffing and qualifications to carry a Taser, Walton said.

The jail has 19 full-time deputies, one part-time deputy and three part-time nurses.