Rapid progress is being made on the final phase of a $4.5 million expansion at the Navajo County Jail.
With the new medical facility and kitchen complete and in operation, attention has been focused on the new booking, transport and control center. The center should be complete by mid-December and in operation by January.
Most of the basic construction is completed, with walls, doors and windows in place, but finishing work is underway, including ceilings and floors, as well as a major upgrade to the jail’s camera and control system.
The new center includes a secure, indoor sally port where inmates will be brought into the jail. Chief Deputy Jim Molesa explained that the enclosed area will protect officers from the elements and also increase security. Windows face out into the sally port so that booking officers and other staff have a clear view of the area, in addition to the cameras.
The booking area is designed to accommodate a much higher level of traffic than the old booking station, and is separate from the transport and release areas to reduce traffic and confusion. Molesa explained that in the old booking area, inmates coming in as well as those being staged for transport all had to come and go through the same small area, resulting in frequent “traffic jams.” The new center has a section for transport that is entirely separate, but next door to booking. The transport area has its own holding cells and exit so that inmates being transported to court or medical appointments will not intermingle with those being booked into the jail.
“Booking, transport and central control all work together all of the time, so we put them together, but separate so that they’re not in each others’ way,” Molesa explained.
The booking area is set up in a horseshoe shape to give all staff members a clear view of the entire room and the holding cells. It includes two changing rooms instead of one, and the holding cells have a much greater capacity.
“The old ones could hold about five people, these can hold up to 25 people,” Molesa said.
In addition to increased capacity, the cells have a drain in the floor to allow for easy clean-up if necessary and telephone access will be inside the cell so that inmates do not have to be moved from the cell in order to make a phone call.
“It will result in a more efficient work flow,” Molesa noted.
The jail expansion also includes two special cells for juveniles that are being held as adults. The cells are completely separate from the adult area and are intended to save the county money in the long run. Molesa explained that the county currently pays Coconino County approximately $120 per day to hold juveniles charged as adults.
“It will save the county that expense to be able to do it here,” he said.
A new secure parking lot for staff members is also being built, which will open up parking spaces in the public parking lot on the north end of the county complex.
Molesa noted that the work is all being completed using funds obtained by refinancing high-interest jail bonds. Sheriff KC Clark previously explained that the refinancing plan saved the county money in the long run, and allowed for a major expansion of the jail.
