Laundry, storage room to be converted to jail space
Faced with more prisoners than room, Marion County Sheriff Lee Becker told county commissioners he planned to convert a former jail cell back into usable space.
Becker said a cell in the southwest corner of the facility, which had not been used for 10 to 12 years, could be used to house individuals who had jail time to serve on weekends.
Currently, the room is used for uniform storage and as a laundry. He noted the room has plumbing fixtures for prisoner's use, and said they would have to see if they could get the plumbing working.
"That would give me two bunk spaces," Becker said. "But we could get three or four in there if we really had to."
Becker said the room has an exposed radiator and a light bulb in the ceiling with a cage around it. He said the room would only be used to house individuals who were there for a two-day stay.
The sheriff indicated the cost of readying the room would be less than what the county is currently spending to house prisoners in other counties.
"That gets to be a fairly large expense — two or three beds at $40 per day," he said. "My budget was in pretty good shape until we had to farm everybody out."
Commissioners suggested road and bridge department employees build a grate around the heating register for safety reasons, and indicated the sheriff should proceed.
