CLAREMORE, Okla. — A two-year-long renovation in Rogers County is nearing its end — the renovations at the Amos G. Ward detention facility are almost complete.
Renovations at the jail began in 2020 and were only supposed to take one year.
“Due to COVID, and delays in shipping, for all different kinds of things like the doors, the locking mechanisms for those doors, it ended up extending it almost another year,” said Lt. Bronson Smith.
Right now, the jail is in phase 3-B — the final phase.
“Phase 3-B consists of taking the current lobby and turning it into two inmate pods and an outdoor day area for those inmates,” Smith said.
Phase one, two, and 3-A, consisted of adding four more cells to the booking area, adding about 60 more beds in the inmate pods, and renovating the kitchen.
A lot of the technology at the jail has also been updated. Which Smith says is the most important part.
“There are lots of pieces of the facility that were updated. Our camera system, which we have already seen extreme benefits from,” Smith said. “We went from about 80 to 90 cameras to 140 cameras.”
He said the new camera system has already proven to have its benefits.
“The clarity of the video. We are able to identify inmates, zoom in, and see what they are doing. Identify contraband that they may have and then trace it back to that inmate that has it.”
All the renovations will be completed by this summer.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
