Published: August 19, 2008 11:28 pm      

Jail OKs bid for security upgrade

SOMERSET — The Somerset County Jail is getting safer.

Seventeen months after an inmate was found falling from a crawlspace above his cell, a Somerset company was hired Tuesday to replace the outdated drop ceilings in the lockup.

Gross Bros. Welding and Fabrication Inc. will replace the ceilings in 44 cells, county commissioners said in awarding the bid.

“This is part of our continuing tightening of security issues at the Somerset County Jail,” Commissioner Chairwoman Pamela Tokar-Ickes said. “We feel this will avoid some of the issues we’ve incurred in the past.”

Gross Bros. was the lone bidder at $2,000 per cell for a total project cost estimated at $88,000.

In March of last year, an inmate was caught on surveillance cameras falling from the ceiling after moving about the crawlspace during a disturbance.

The year before, another prisoner was charged with attempted escape after getting into the crawlspace and chipping away at an outside wall.

Tokar-Ickes said construction could start immediately.

“This is something we’ve been discussing for quite some time,” she said. “We’d like to get that done as soon as possible.”

The county recently finished having 39 new high-resolution security cameras installed inside the jail, as well as around the perimeter.

Next in line for upgrades is the facility’s plumbing.

“It’s really a new era for the Somerset County Jail,” Tokar-Ickes said.

The jail has a population of about 80 inmates, far below the 140 or more during the height of security problems four years ago.