Grand jury makes recommendations about county facilities
One of the complaints by the grand jury was a single stair railing on the stairs of the courthouse.
By Bruce Roberts
A grand jury convened several weeks ago in Ozark County, and in the days and weeks following, several indictments were handed down ranging from serious to not-so-serious crimes.
At the conclusion of its term, the grand jury met in session and toured county facilities including the courthouse, jail, prosecuting attorney’s office and other county facilities and made a list of recommendations about the conditions of the facilities with recommended improvements and changes.
The four-page document was obtained by the Ozark County Times and includes a bevy of suggestions by the grand jury.
“By statute some of their potential duties is to inspect and make recommendations on county facilities,” said Ozark County Presiding Commissioner John Turner. “Most of the things on the list we are already addressing, but there are some things that we won’t be able to do.”
“In my 20 years working for the county, I’ve never seen a grand jury do this,” said County Clerk Brian Wise.
Recommendations for jail, sheriff’s office
The list of recommended improvements is quite lengthy including 22 items ranging from courtroom improvements to lack of security at county facilities.
The most serious complaint lodged by the grand jury was that of the conditions at the Ozark County Jail.
“What we observed at the sheriff’s office and jail was horrifying,” the grand jury wrote in its report. “Every county commissioner should be required to tour this facility at least every year if not more often. The overall recommendation is for a new jail to be built, but knowing that this is a long-term project to finance, we have included a list of short-term fixes that must be undertaken,” the grand jury report stated.
Some of the issues at the jail include:
• The automatic locking mechanisms on the internal and external doors are failing.
• There are currently no working smoke and heat detectors within the jail pods.
• The exterior safety glass was damaged at some point, and previous officials covered the windows with metal. “This is against the law and leaves the jail with no natural light sources in the pods in violation of state guidelines and federal law,” the grand jury wrote.
• The internal safety glass of several pods and cells have been damaged.
• The roof is leaking.
• Currently the entire jail population is being fed using a single four-burner stove. The jail needs a corporate-sized cooking facilities, but there is currently nowhere to house the bigger appliances.
“We have a company working on a lot of these issues now at the jail,” Turner said. “We allocated over $170,000 for improvements at the jail.”
The grand jury report also made recommendations about the sheriff’s department inadequate staffing levels, saying the department is short three commissioned deputies, four jailers and one dispatcher to what is recommended by the Missouri Sheriff’s Association.
The report also said that deputies must provide their own firearm, body armor, first aid equipment, duty belt, handcuffs, flash lights and less-lethal aids.
The sheriff’s department’s radio system was criticized as inadequate by the grand jury.
“We believe that additional funding is required for the Sheriff’s Department to be able to adequately execute their duties … we believe that every citizen should tour the jail facility to see for themselves how extensive the problems are,” the grand jury wrote.
Courthouse recommendations
Other recommendations given by the grand jury, include repairs to the courtroom such as the microphone and sound recording system, a bench that needs replaced, water damage to ceiling tiles, an inadequate room for jury deliberations, improvements to the bathroom and others.
The grand jury noted that the old jail facility in the second floor of the courthouse is being used for storage, and that space could be better utilized for county needs if the storage were digitized or moved to an off-site location.
The grand jury also lamented the tiny second courtroom in the basement, calling it “wholly inadequate.”
The grand jury also recommended improvements to the handicap bathroom on the first floor of the courthouse and handrails on both sides of the stairs leading to each floor.
Courthouse security was also mentioned by the grand jury. “It is unacceptable that there is no security provided at the Ozark County Courthouse on any day that court is not in session … and on days that we do not have court the closest law enforcement is well over a mile away,” the grand jury wrote. “Any call for assistance will take catastrophically too long to arrive. There should be a single, secured entrance that includes a metal detector. There should be funding provided to the sheriff to ensure a commissioned deputy is available to work this security detail at all times the courthouse is open,” the grand jury stated.
Commissioners response
Turner said he doesn’t see the county being able to provide security at the courthouse during business hours. “We are struggling to have deputies on duty out in the county,” Turner said.
“Some of these things have already been taken care of, and we are working on several of the other issues,” Turner said. “But there are some of them that the county probably won’t be able to do.”
A grand jury has no means to enforce its recommendations. The grand jury also put its weight behind a half-cent sales tax for law enforcement that has been placed on the November ballot.
If passed, the sales tax would nearly double the law enforcement budget.