More info needed on jail control systems before approval
Polk County Jail upgrade must be completed before September inspection
Polk County officials are hoping to get a bid approved by September for a new jail control system or face the possibility of closing the jail and having to house inmates outside the county.
Sheriff Johnny Moats told public safety committee members during their July 2 session that two bids with drastically different figures - nearly $200,000 in difference - came in for the hard- ware and installation of a new system for cameras, locks and other security equipment needed at the Polk County jail.
Chief jailer Al Sharp, who replaced Jerry Shellhouse in April, told the committee a previous visit from the state fire marshal’s office in need date turned up the same problem Floyd County is working to fix now: get new jail controls, or face closure of the lockup until it is fixed.
“I would like to have this in place before the end of September when the fire marshal is coming back,” Sharp said.
The job will require whoever gets the contract, either Black Creek or Montgomery Technology, Incto bring in a new level of digital systems into the jail. Whole new camera systems, locks controlled by touchscreens, and miles of wiring will be installed.
“The only thing that could go wrong is a lock quits working or a flatscreen tablet goes out, and we can quickly replace both. It’s a lot easier to maintain and it should bring mainte-
-nance costs downs,” Moats said.
He said the hope is to have the work started by October to get the jail back in compliance with the state fire marshal’s office and avoid a shutdown of the facility, forcing the county, along with the city of Rockmart and the city of Cedartown, to pay another jail to house inmates. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office back in April reported revenue of more than $126,000 collected for housing inmates, not just locally, but from areas such as Chattooga and Floyd counties. The jail contributes thousands of dollars of revenue monthly for housing inmates from other counties and for federal authorities.
Moats said that he believes state officials understand that “this is a process, and one that might take a little bit longer than expected.”
Two things have to be done before a decision can be made on a contractor. One, the county needs to look at jails where the digital systems have already been installed to see how they are being used, and two, whoever gets the bid has to understand Polk County has some unique design problems that have to be considered.
“Our central control is in the old part of the jail, and our control tower is in the new part of the jail that was added on previously, which makes any work that has to be done that much more difficult since the construction was done at different times,” Moats said. “The goal is to get the two control areas to work more smoothly with each other than they do now along with addressing our compliance issues. It’s going to be a job.”
County manager Matt Denton noted that Montgomery Technology, Inc., sent in a bid for $309,000 versus Black Creek’s bid for $480,000. He said the big difference in bids was a concern.
“Anytime you get that drastic a difference in a bid, you can get things that have been missed,” he said. “I think we need to do more due diligence on this before we move forward.”
Denton asked Sharp and Moats to seek out jails with both within the month to see how other facilities are using the controls. He also said he wants to make sure the county is not just choosing the cheapest solution.
“We want to get what’s best out there and that isn’t going to prove difficult to fix in the future if we run into problems,” he said.
Denton told Sharp a decision on which bid will be accepted needs to be made before the next visit of the state fire marshal’s office in late September.
Any decision on the bid would have to come back to the committee in late July if possible, with a decision made by the full board during its August session.