Our class trip to the Orient Road Jail was completely fascinating. We were greeted by Major Robert Lucas, who was our tour guide for this trip. After going over a bit of the ground rules, our trip was underway…
Booking
We started off in the booking area. This is where the incarcerated are received from the streets and processed into the system. First they go to the Intake station, where all their personal information is documented. This then becomes available on the county website, for those doing public records research. The next phase is Property. All their personal valuables are inventoried for the time being. They can either obtain them upon their eventual release from the jail, or they can sign a release for someone else to get them. Then they are taken to Fingerprinting. It was fascinating to see that the fingerprints are taken digitally. Then, instead of the old t.v./movie style of taking a pic holding a sign, with two profile pictures, they simply do a digital scan of the face. Major Lucas noted that having these images in their database (the photos are also available when doing an inmate records search), makes traditional lineups unnecessary. After they visit the Medical station, they then are taken to the body scanner. Since federal law now prohibits strip searches, the body scanners effectively determine any orifices that may be hiding metal. After that, if it is determined they aren’t going to bond out, they are sent to the resident areas.
See a map of the Booking area
Learn more about the Ranger Boss II Body Scanner
Living Pods
Actually, the residences are not long hallways of iron-bar cells as you might expect from television and the movies. They are more like little dorms. Stress the “little”. Each inmate effectively lives in a room not much larger than a closet, with either a single bed or a bunk bed, and then a desk. They are only confined to their rooms for certain times of the day, if they behave well. Major Lucas seemed to stress the behavioral modification aspect of the jail. If they misbehave, they lose privileges. Extreme cases get them put in Lockdown.
Lockdown is very similar to solitary confinement. An inmate is shut in a narrow room, only allowed to leave to shower, or one hour of indoor and one hour of outdoor recreation. Unless they lose the recreation privileges, then they can only shower. We then moved on to the final stop of the tour.
Master Control
Our tour ended at Master Control. From there an operator can see all the cameras throughout the jail. Major Lucas told us how even though we saw only a small part of the jail, that it was fairly symmetrical, and that the whole jail was pretty much the same from then on. I was rather impressed with the tour, particularly how technologically advanced they were. I would have like to see more, particularly the video courtroom, and the adult education center.
Meet you further up the road,
Brentin
PHOTO GALLERY