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Thursday, November 05, 2009

Ind. Decisions - Still more re "Inmates' sexual romps not a crime"

Lisa Trigg reports in the Terre Haute Tribune Star:

TERRE HAUTE — A security-improving project in the Vigo County Security Center is solving a design flaw that had allowed some jail inmates to crawl through the ceiling to visit other cells.

Eight pods in the 7-year-old addition to the original jail are getting sturdier ceiling panels to prevent excursions by inmates. And best of all, according to county officials, the updates are costing the county zero dollars.

A negotiated settlement with the original architect is covering the $500,000 cost of the project, Sheriff Jon Marvel said.

“The ceiling system in those cells was inadequate,” Marvel said during a recent tour of the facility. “That’s obvious due to problems we have had.”

He explained that inmates in a top bunk could kick upward against the perforated metal ceiling panels, bending them and stripping out screws that held the ceiling system together. Once a panel could be lifted far enough, a person could slip through the gap and roam around in the crawl space above the cells.

The same type of ceiling was installed at a jail in Lake County, Marvel said, and that ceiling system also failed.

This is not the same jail as was involved in the Oct. 7th Court of Appeals decision - that was the Greene County Jail - see this Oct. 8th ILB entry.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 5, 2009 10:10 AM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions