Barren County Jailer Aaron Shirley demonstrates how contraband can be smuggled in something as small as a phone calling card. The orange patch is an area containing the drug suboxone. A new contract approved by the Barren Fiscal Court eliminates such cards and makes them digital.
(BRENNAN CRAIN/WCLU NEWS)
By BRENNAN D. CRAIN, WCLU News
GLASGOW — Barren County Jailer Aaron Shirley said he’s hopeful two contracts approved last month by the Barren Fiscal Court will save taxpayers and aid safety efforts at the jail.
The contracts approved dealt with services at the county jail ranging from telecommunications to the food program. Shirley said the new telecommunications program will eliminate many of the channels in which contraband is passed into the jail.
“After we get this implemented, there won’t be any mail coming into the facility,” Shirley said.
The jail was previously contracted with Securus Technologies but now uses Smart Communications Holding, Inc. The jailer said one of the most significant components of the new contract is the incentives they are offering the jail and the county.
A tech grant with $252,000 was made available to the jail as a part of the four-year agreement. The money is being placed in an escrow account overseen by the company. The jailer has access to the money only by writing to the company and explaining what needs the jail has.
“That way I don’t touch the money,” he said. “It’s all done by a paper trail. If we get audited, it’s all done down to the penny.”
Shirley said the funds in the escrow account cannot be used for salaries or vehicle needs but will be used for other equipment needs. He said that money alone will bolster the jail’s ability to be less of a burden on taxpayers over the next four years.
Inmates regularly make calls to family and others outside the jail, Shirley said. The county will be compensated for 42% of the total digital phone card sales with the new contract. Inmates were previously given tangible cards – similar to business cards – with calling instructions on them. But even those cards have been used to smuggle small batches of drugs and other contraband into the jail.
On our visit to the county jail, Shirley showed how a thin patch of suboxone had been planted inside a faux calling card. The contraband was only visible under a flashlight.
The company will also provide the jail with correctional tablets similar to an iPad. The tablets will house books, religious texts and various PG-13 movies.
“That movie is about equivalent to if you ordered off of Netflix or something – four bucks,” he said. “They can even split that and two of them watch the same movie.”
The court also approved a food services and commissary contract with Aramark. Magistrate Tim Durham oversees the jail committee and explained his hopes of improving the jail’s food plan.
“I want our inmates taken care of. I want them fed well and with good food,” Durham said.
Kellwell Food Management’s contract was not renewed due to unsatisfactory conditions with their food product. The jailer explained how food is made in batches before it is distributed across the jail. By the time it reached inmates, it was often cold.
Portable kiosks will be used to store food while it is taken around the jail to inmates. Those kiosks will keep the food heated through a built-in convection system.
Equipment investments for the kitchen also came attached to the Aramark contract.
“We have $40,000 already set aside to purchase that stuff,” Shirley said. “Plus, each year after that they will give us $15,000 for upkeep or if something tears up.”
