Making strides

CLOVIS - Even with Administrator Mark Gallegos's year-long absence, the Curry County Detention Center has been making strides in its efforts to improve the local jail and has managed to curb some of its longest-standing issues.

Gallegos returned to his position at the Detention Center in September after taking a year to serve his active duty time in the U.S. Navy. He recently led members of the county commission on their annual tour of the facility following Thursday's commission meeting.

Commission Chairman Chet Spear, once the administrator at the Detention Center himself in 1993, praised many Gallegos efforts, particularly how he has improved the jail's employee retention rates.

"We've got a great team over there and our openings are way down," Spear said. "In years past, up until Mark initiated his training program, we were always 12-15 officers short. That was always a big problem because it's so expensive to train anyone and we'd have people come, get trained and leave."

Currently, the jail is only looking for three additional officers to fill out its ranks, down from the 12 needed when Gallegos first returned.

On the day of the tour, the jail housed 163 inmates following a warrant roundup, with Gallegos previously reporting the jail often averages around 200 detainees at a time. The staff generally works to have detainees out within 30 days when appropriate.

The Juvenile Detention Center housed four detainees at the time of the tour, while it usually averages around six. Gallegos said that he prefers not to incarcerate juveniles when possible and actively encourages those he works with to get involved with the local Teen Court program.

Gallegos said that the Detention Center's use of force incidents when handling inmates is at an all-time low, with only one incident reported this year, compared to 40 the previous year. He attributes that mostly to his team's improved detainee management efforts.

"Detainee management is what we've made the most progress on, that includes medical, behavioral and health and overall the attitude and behavior of detainees coming in," Gallegos said. "Our staff are all trained to manage the people who come in. Sometimes we'll get people off the streets who come in hollering, but we know how to handle them."

In terms of discipline, Gallegos said that restricting privileges for misbehaving inmates has been the most effective method, with the loss of phone use and visitation being two of the biggest incentives. He also said keeping the food standards high in the jail is also vital to keeping detainees content.

Given the progress made, Gallegos and the commission are looking forward to the facility's accreditation set to take place later next year.

"He's got a great team and a great program," Spear said. "He has great training, a great program, and not to jinx anything, but there hasn't been anything going on we need to worry about."

The tour also covered the Detention Center's ongoing renovation project, which is also nearing completion even though it has hit more than a couple snags along the way.

While previous issues regarding the Detention Center's fire alarm systems were resolved with help from the state level, some unexpected costs were discovered and brought to the county's attention during Thursday's meeting.

According to representatives from HB Construction, there were 59 cameras shown in the renovation plans that would need to be changed from an analog to a digital system, but as construction commenced, it was discovered there were actually a total of 85 cameras needing to be replaced.

While it would have been possible to account for a small number of extra cameras, HB determined 26 too much in additional costs. While HB looks for a temporary workaround, it advised the county to be prepared to foot the bill and possibly pursue the architects over the discrepancy. The old set of cameras couldn't simply be hooked up to the new system either, as the analog components would not work with the new digital setup.

With the issue in mind, the new facilities are slated to be turned over to county management by the end of January, with Gallegos and the rest of his staff excited for the improvements, including new cell blocks and a new sally port among other improvements.