By C1 Staff
SNOW HILL, Md. — Even though the faulty locks at the Worcester County Jail were discovered more than six months ago, they still have not been fixed.
According to Delmarva Now, the locks allow inmates to leave their cells and freely move about the holding area. Jail officials found that six of 14 locks in the maximum security area were compromised.
They are in the process of being retrofitted at the cost of $110,720. Jail officials expect the locks to last another 30 years.
“Retrofit issues delayed the project, with the contractor having to go back and reshape the steel locks,” county spokeswoman Kim Moses said. “The holdup was that, when the materials came in, they needed to be altered. They actually ended up sending the materials back and reshaping them.”
She said repairs should be done by the end of the month.
The jail was built back in 1982, and technicians concluded that the 30-year-old Roanoke Iron devices were simply worn out. Only the locks needed replacing, not the doors themselves.
“The parts are obsolete, and it’s…virtually impossible to get parts to repair these gates,” said Warden Garry Mumford.