Ringgold County Sheriff’s Office new and improved

MOUNT AYR — On Nov. 2, 2011, the new sheriff’s office on Highway 2 in Mount Ayr was completed and officers started moving in.

“The sheriff’s office and the board of supervisors started looking into a new jail in the late ‘70s to early ‘80s,” Ringgold County Sheriff Mike Sobotka said. “We were never able to get anything done until recently.”

Construction started in late October, early November of 2010. However, it took four to five years to get the project completed.

The old jail, located on the top floor of the Ringgold County Courthouse, wasn’t meeting state codes.

“We weren’t able to hold females because they have special rules and our visitation was very unsecure,” Sobotka said. “We weren’t able to separate felons from misdemeanors, which by code, you are supposed to do whenever possible. There were also a lot of concerns about suicide because there were exposed pipes that ran through the jail for heat and things like that.”

In 2006, the board of supervisors talked for a long time about what needed to be done. A needs-assessment study was done and results showed a new jail was needed. After the assessment, Sobotka and the board met with a citizen’s group consisting of people from rural areas in the county and every city in the county.

“They heard all of our concerns and issues with the old jail,” Sobotka said. “We gave them a tour of the old jail and they determined that the county should move forward in trying to construct a new jail.”

Moving forward

Sobotka and the board worked with the city and passed the one-cent local option sales tax in January 2007.

“At first I thought the funding was going to be the biggest problem,” Sobotka said. “It turned out it was one of the easier things to do in the whole process. The entire project was supposed to cost $2.5 million.”

In August 2007, the bids came in. However, all of the bids were about $1 million over budget.

“The board and I both said that was unacceptable,” Sobotka said. “So, we went back to the drawing board, made a lot of changes and did a lot of cutting. We still couldn’t get it to the $2.5 million mark, so we started looking at lease purchases.”

In late 2009, the board looked into two individuals that were interested in a lease purchase. Both selected their own architect, designed a facility and worked with Sobotka.

“The board chose this particular set of plans, but the person with the plans couldn’t get the financing,” he said. “So, we ended up buying the plans, selling the bonds and then building the facility.”

The original plan for the facility was just to build a new jail since that was the only thing not meeting code.

“It’s probably a good thing that we ended up combining the sheriff’s office and jail,” Sobatka said. “If it was going to be just a jail; we would have had to hire six to eight more people. Instead, we ended up hiring two part-time employees.”

Changes for the better

With the new policies and procedures at the new jail and office, the operation of the jail has become more consistent.

“It’s more scheduled,” Sobotka said. “It’s more routine. From the time the inmate wakes up to the time they go to bed, there are certain things that happen each day.”

Inmates are able to buy phone cards to call their attorneys, family or friends using the phone in their day room. Visitation is also more secure because the inmates never leave the day room; visitation is done through television screens, one in the lobby for the public and one in the day room for the inmate.

“This cuts back on having to move the inmates,” Sobotka said. “At the old jail, we had to move them all of the time. I’m also obligated to give the inmates something that keeps them in touch with the outside world, which is why there are televisions in their day rooms.”

The inmates are also allowed two, one-hour exercise periods a week.

“The exercise yard is all indoors. There is nothing in it though,” Sobotka said. “A lot of places have basketball hoops, but we don’t because then you will be taking the inmates to the hospital to get their ankle checked or something like that.”

Because of the new facility, Ringgold County is able to hold female inmates now. They have also held inmates from Union and Taylor Counties and are in the process of getting a contract with Worth County, Mo., to house their inmates, as well.

There are more than 30 cameras in the new facility. All of the cameras can be monitored in the control room.

“There are some places that we could probably place a camera in the future,” Sobotka said. “But, there isn’t very many places in the facility where there aren’t cameras.”

Sobotka added one of the best things about the new facility was the padded room.

“We have used the padded room,” he said. “It’s the best thing we have had. It’s not as hard as a brick, but it’s not really soft either. Anyone who is suicidal or wanting to tear things up, we can just put them in here and wait until they calm down.”

Sobotka added the location is working very well for them.

“I do miss the old facility because sometimes people would just stop in and say hi since they were already at the courthouse,” he said. “But this location has worked well for us and the facility is a lot better. It has worked out well, there was a lot of headaches and stress, but we got it done and it was a long overdue journey.”