Clark County Sheriff David Turner is installing a security fence on the county jail’s perimeter to keep tobacco, drugs, cell phones and weapons out of the hands of prisoners.
Turner has hired a company to install the 10-foot-high, chain-link fence to enclose 186 feet of lawn along the southern and western walls of the jail. The fence will also accommodate two 1-foot-high barb arms, which will create a “Y” at the top of the fence with three strands of barbed wire on either side. Surveillance cameras are also in place to deter people on the outside from delivering prohibited articles.
He said the fenced-in area will also provide a place for prisoners to go in case of an evacuation. In the event of a fire alarm, inmates now either go to the exercise are of the jail or across the street to the Red Cross building.
The $2,000 project, contracted to L&D Fence of Hot Springs, should be finished Tuesday, Turner said.
The contraband problem stems, he said, from jail inmates who burn holes in their cell window and drop a rigged rope — fashioned out of a ripped bed sheet and a sock — for a planned contraband drop. Outsiders involved in delivering the prohibited items schedule the drop, then quickly place either tobacco products, drugs, cell phones or knives into the sock for the prisoner to pull up.
Former Chief Deputy Tim Patterson said in a January interview that he had viewed footage of these drops and said it takes only 10 seconds for the delivery to be made. After the fence goes up, Turner said he plans to have the holes in the windows repaired “one more time.”
Anything the sheriff’s office does not provide an inmate is considered prohibited, including ink pens and food. Furnishing a prohibited article is a crime that can range from a Class B to a Class D felony charge. Depending on the article that is given to an inmate, someone found guilty of this crime could face anywhere from six to 20 years in prison.
Turner said he is certain the fence will keep contraband out of the jail. “If you climb over an 11-foot fence with the cameras there, you’ll still be there by the time we get around there,” Turner said.
Only visitors or trustees would be able to bring contraband into the jail after the fence is finished, Turner said, but they are subject to search before entering the jail and are always patted down and searched before entering.
Turner said of the contraband problem since January, “We’re still getting some in. Putting up the fence can cut it down, but will not be able to stop it completely.”
He said in January that he planned to go before the Clark County Quorum Court to ask for additional jailers and/or deputies to
