Half of the Ozark County Jail is without water; Sheriff had to move several inmates to other counties


Times photo/Bruce Roberts Deputy Seth Miller shows the water softener system in the basement of the Ozark County Jail that has been bypassed for some time and has created some plumbing issues in the jail. Most of the jail was effectively shut down due to plumbing issues over the weekend.

The Ozark County Jail was without water over the weekend, and most of the jail remained without water on Monday due to plumbing issues within the building.

The Sheriff’s Department posted a statement on their Facebook page over the weekend explaining that the jail was mostly without water and several prisoners were being transferred to other facilities during the crisis. Officials said the plumbing issue would cause Sunday in-person visitation of inmates to be suspended until the problem could be fixed.The Ozark County Times toured the jail Monday and was told that, at the time, only a couple toilets and showers in cell pods were working, but most of the jail was effectively shut down due to internal plumbing issues.

“We have a couple toilets working in a couple of the pods,” said Deputy Seth Miller.

Miller explained that the jail had been experiencing some plumbing problems for a while now, and they had recently replaced several water heater elements.

“First it was no hot water,” Miller said. “Then we replaced the elements and got hot water back, and now it’s basically no water.”

Miller said none of the public or staff restrooms were working Monday morning.

“We’ve been having to go to Bullseye or to my house to use the restroom,” Miller said.

Sheriff Cass Martin said a plumber is scheduled to come look at the issue today (Wednesday, Oct. 19).

The plumbing issues pretty much all stem from a water softener system that has been bypassed. The hard city water contains lime which wreaks havoc on plumbing systems and water heaters.

Sheriff’s officials said the water softener system was bypassed some time ago because, when it was installed, the system had 1-inch water intake heads and was being fed by 2-inch water supply pipes.

“So they reduced it down to 1-inch lines, and when that goes through the [water softener] system it doesn’t produce enough water pressure to run the jail,” Miller said.

Officials said they thought that size of a jail facility needed a water softener system that has 2-inch supply heads.

Miller said he estimates the cost to fix the immediate problem will be around $3,000, and he wasn’t sure what it would cost to fix or replace the water softener to stop the problems. “Probably another $5,000 or $6,000,” he said.

Presiding County Commissioner John Turner said the water softener system at the jail was installed in 2016 at a cost of about $3,500.

“If it wasn’t done right or needed a different system, somebody should have said something,” Turner said Monday during the regular weekly meeting of county commissioners.

Western District Commissioner Layne Nance said he wished all of the commissioners would tour the aging jail and help address the issues.

“It’s our job to tour the county facilities and that includes the jail,” Nance said. “I’m not throwing anybody under the bus, but I’m the only one that’s gone and looked at the jail,” Nance added.

The plumbing issue is just another byproduct of an aging jail facility that remains in a state of disrepair due to lack of money in the law enforcement budget.

Turner said the jail also needs a new roof, and a recent grand jury inspection pointed out a laundry list of discrepancies at the facility.

 

Lack of funding

Turner said the state has recently paid a balance to the county on prisoner per diem reimbursements, the cost of housing state prisoners in the facility, that had gone unpaid for several months. That money goes directly into the sheriff’s department’s budget.

“So the sheriff’s department has money in their account,” Turner said, noting that they had a current balance of nearly $200,000. “If the system needs to be fixed, then they’ve got the money, they need to get it fixed,” Turner said. “If I’m going to continue to get heat about it and nobody fixes it then I’m going to call somebody and we’re going to get it fixed.”

Turner reiterated his disappointment in the state legislature’s inaction in raising the prisoner per diem reimbursement rate.

“It says in the statute that they’re supposed to pay $37 per day per prisoner, and they’re only paying $22,” Turner said. “It’s the same as it was eight years ago when I first came into office,” Turner said.

Martin said his department did just recently receive $63,000 from the state for prisoner per diem reimbursement. “I thought maybe we’d have a little breathing room in our budget and then this plumbing thing happened,” the sheriff said. Martin said he didn’t know that the water softener had been bypassed and that it had been done before his term as sheriff began.

An Ozark County grand jury recently toured county facilities and reported their findings and recommendations that included several issues at the jail, such as an inadequate kitchen, no working smoke or heat detectors, damaged and missing safety glass, faulty electronic security doors and staffing shortcomings, among others.

“When it all boils down to it, we’re all responsible for the jail,” Nance said. 

Commissioners have placed a half-cent sales tax issue on the November ballot that would exclusively fund law enforcement and the county jail operations.

Ozark County Times

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PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
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