Excitement imbues jail groundbreaking

Recidivism and effective correctional and rehabilitative practices were the forefront of the minds of many officials that had spoken during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office’s new medium-security jail facility Monday.

Former Sheriff Fox, for whom the new facility will be named, added his voice to those of several others that commended the Sheriff’s Office’s willingness to increasingly adopt

at programs that provide inmates with skills that can help them successfully rejoin society and

going leave their troubled pasts behind.

“It will help put people back into the communities of Imperial County that will be better-prepared to do something other than commit crimes,” Fox said, referring to the new jail.

The pending two-story facility will be quite a contrast to the first local jail facility Fox said he had worked at near Highway 98 when he started his career with the ICSO some 40 years ago. Back then, a total of two deputies were charged with maintaining custody of about 300 prisoners, none of which had much resources to occupy their time.

Monday’s ceremony had marked the second time that Fox had been present for a local jail’s groundbreaking ceremony, and had also served to commemorate Correctional Officers Appreciation Week, celebrated the week of May 2 through May 6.

The new Oren R. Fox Medium Security Detention Facility will be a 62,000-square-feet, two-story facility and provide 270 medium- and minimum-security beds.

It was made possible by a $33 million grant the county had received in October 2011 from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Board of State and Community Corrections.

Construction on the new jail facility had been initially projected to start in October 2014, and be completed by January of this year, but had encountered setbacks along the way.

“I have never been involved in so complex a project as this, and one that will quite frankly impact the community for years to come,” said Sheriff Ray Loera.

Currently, the Herbert Hughes Correctional Center is not properly designed to fully accommodate rehabilitative programs aimed at reducing recidivism, which is the rate at which previously incarcerated inmates return to jail, Loera said.

Yet, as a result of Assembly Bill 109, local jurisdictions such as the ICSO are now tasked with not only housing low-level offenders that had previously served their sentences at a state prison, but providing them with programs to build skills that could help prevent them from returning to criminal behavior, Loera said.

“The Imperial County has not only taken up this challenge, but become one of the most innovative, progressive and collaborative systems in the state,” he said.

Currently, eligible inmates have access to a number of rehabilitative programs, including literacy, communication-building and work programs, to name a few, and will soon add two new classrooms and a culinary program to that list once the new jail facility is completed, said ICSO Correctional Chief Jamie Clayton.

Although the majority of those programs have not been in place locally for the three consecutive years needed to evaluate their efficacy, Clayton said the programs have proven successful elsewhere throughout the nation.

“There’s a myriad of classes that we want to do that are all evidence-based,” she said.

Locally, about 49 to 64 percent of the county’s inmates have been previously incarcerated, a reflection of recidivism rates that have been comparable to state and nationwide averages, Clayton said.

Joining the multitude of law enforcement officials and local dignitaries that were present for the groundbreaking ceremony was Lance Reeves, with the Brawley-based Grace & Truth Fellowship, who had helped start the ceremony with an invocation.

Reeves also told those gathered that certain local churches have also been instrumental in helping local law enforcement agencies attempt to keep former inmates on the straight and narrow with halfway houses that are funded by their respective congregations.

The pending opening of the new jail facility is likely to further help cement that collaborative effort.

“Participation from volunteers in our community is going to be very significant,” he said.

FROM LEFT: Former county Sheriff Oren Fox addresses the crowd gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony for the new jail facility that will bear his name. Sheriff Ray Loera also had thanked those gathered for their continued efforts to make the community safe.