By C1 Staff
SUPERIOR, Mt. – Staff members at the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office were puzzled when they discovered a small security breach in a cell window – a small hole.
At first staff believed the inmate who inhabited the cell had simply burned a hole in the window using a lighter, but none were turned up during contraband searches, according to Clark Fork Valley Press. Further investigation indicated that the inmate had used a heated pencil to create the hole in the Plexiglas window.
It’s believed the inmate heated the pencil using a power outlet; according to staff, there is one power outlet in the cells that is active. Windows in the cells are Plexiglas screens with four or five spaced layers, which means the responsible party had to work hard to make it all the way through to the outside.
Repairs have been scheduled and there have also been plans made to change how wiring is set up in the jail. Rumors of drugs passed through the hole in the window were false, but staff is very much aware of how inmates could use the hole to get things from outside.
Duane Simons, commissioner of the west end, suggested a cover could be placed over the inside of the window to prevent people on the outside of the jail from messing with the window panes.
“They’d still have daylight, but they wouldn’t be able to mess with that glass,” he said.