The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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  • Dan Linehan

    justice tour 2

January 13, 2009

Justice center provides example

Drawing notice from D.C.

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — A federal corrections official was in Mankato Tuesday touring Blue Earth County’s nearly finished Justice Center and overseeing the production of a video of the jail as a model for other counties.

Cheryl Paul, a correctional program specialist with the National Institute of Corrections, said the agency is taping four “hand-picked” counties nationwide to create a video on jail planning. Paul and a crew of videographers followed county officials on a tour of the jail.

Among the security upgrades in the new jail is the so-called “direct supervision” style that allows custody officers to watch inmates, said Dennis Liebert, a Colorado-based consultant who has worked closely with the county. That’s superior to the current jail’s “linear” or “remote” monitoring, which puts inmates out of staff members’ sight.

The new jail features large rooms with two levels of cells lining the walls, with a common area in the center. The existing jail in the Law Enforcement Center has corridors with cells set off, more like the halls of a school.

The new strategy is also expected to be safer for staff and more efficient to monitor. Overall, more custody officers will be needed, but the jail will more than double in size, from 75 beds to 196. This excess capacity may also be sold to other counties.

A large fence added to the jail’s exterior isn’t a last-ditch security measure; it’s meant to keep outsiders out, not inmates inside.

The jail is expected to accept inmates on about April 15, though that may yet change.

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