New Madrid County Jail Closed For Renovations

As early as this Thursday, the New Madrid County Commission could have a decision on where its prisoners will be housed for the next six months.

Following a meeting of the New Madrid County Commission on July 10, all prisoners at the New Madrid County Jail were moved and the jail facilities closed.

According to County Clerk Clement Cravens, the decision followed a meeting with the attorney from the Missouri Public Entity Risk Management fund. The jail's insurance is provided through MOPERM, which recently advised the county it would no longer provide insurance coverage for any future assaults at the county's jail facility unless corrective measures were provided.

The county had begun making improvements including the installation of a new video monitoring system in the jail. Also improvements to the jail doors were planned.

"In that discussion with the attorney a lot of things were discussed on what it would take to get the jail up to speed and all the costs involved," said Cravens. "The more (the County Commissioners) thought about the outlay of expenditures ... they decided to close the jail right now and take another look at the situation sometime after the end of year."

The New Madrid County Board of Commissioners is in the process of temporarily closing the New Madrid County Jail, to make way for extensive renovations and repairs. The Board made its decision last Thursday. Presiding Board Commissioner Clyde Hawes said, "All jailers must be out of the jail in two weeks. All county inmates have already been transitioned to the Scott County Jail." New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens added that the facility's 28 prisoners were moved on July 2. He said he didn't know how long the construction will take.

In addition to the renovations, work is being to correct a problem with green mold that was discovered throughout the building. The list of renovations includes a new interior paint job and the installation of a $30,000 security camera surveillance system. The County is also spending $65,000 to replace 12 deteriorating cell doors. New Madrid County Clerk Clement Cravens said the repair work is in response to a suggestion by the County's insurance provider, following several inmate security-related issues. (The building continues to be insured.) In addition, the County has hired an engineering firm to decide whether it would be structurally feasible to replace the current flat roof with a gabled roof.

Cravens said officials contacted several different counties about the possibility of housing the prisoners during construction. He said the Board settled on Scott County's offer of $37 per prisoner/per day as the best option. While emphasizing the County has no intention of permanently closing the jail, Cravens added that he will be interested in seeing how the costs compare between running the jail versus housing prisoners in another facility, such as the Scott County Jail.

(Portions of this story available from the Standard-Democrat, Sikeston)