THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180512
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 60 lines
Gone are the days of vertical steel bars, with the prisoner inside the jail cell rattling a tin water cup while the sheriff sits nearby, twirling a key ring.
The new addition to the Norfolk City Jail - computerized, mechanical and almost ready to house inmates - is a step into the future. While the addition may be state-of-the-art, its main purpose will be to ease overcrowding.
City Council members and other officials toured the facility Tuesday as workers continued the interior construction. The first inmates are scheduled to move in Nov. 15.
``We're very excited about this,'' said George Schaefer, spokesman for the Norfolk jail. ``Sometimes we have more people on the floor of our jails than other jails have in them.''
The $24.9 million addition is being built to get inmates off floors and into beds. Total population ranges from about 1,200 to 1,300, Schaefer said. The existing jail has 592 beds, and the addition will have 317.
The addition will feature a combination of traditional construction with ``direct observation'' pods in which a deputy will watch inmates from a control room. Most of the cells have a steel screening instead of traditional bars.
``The intention of this whole facility is to be a keyless jail,'' said Chris Smith, senior architect for the Department of Public Works.
Jailers will run the operation and monitor inmates from graphic panels using a computer touch screen. All the doors are pneumatic rather than electro-magnetic, meaning air opens them. The doors have fewer moving parts and a tighter fit, making it tougher to slip contraband through.
``The old jail is lock and key,'' Schaefer said. ``It's like going from the Bastille to `Star Wars.' ''
For the most part, the tour group seemed pleased with what they saw. Smith, who led the tour, said the building is 90 percent complete.
There's plenty of work to be done, but several features are taking shape.
There will be 29 public visiting stations and seven areas for attorney-inmate meetings. Dormitories for inmates in the work-release program are being constructed on the first floor. A gym with skylights will occupy the seventh and eighth floors. There are also five multipurpose areas, and medical facilities on the eighth floor for men and on the third floor for women.
The jail will have minimum-, medium- and maximum-security cells. The halls and cells are cream-colored with blue trim.
Several hundred Norfolk inmates also will be housed at the $66 million Hampton Roads Regional Jail, which is under construction in Portsmouth. The regional jail, which is scheduled to open in December 1997 with 876 beds, will serve Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton and Newport News.
By the close of 1997, Hampton Roads will have about 1,500 new beds to house inmates - the result of the Norfolk addition as well as additions in Chesapeake and the completion of the regional jail. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk City Council members and other officials toured the City
Jail's $24.9 million addition Tuesday, as construction crews kept
working. The first inmates are scheduled to move into the new
building on Nov. 15.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY JAIL EXPANSION by CNB