By Maayan Schechter
Aiken Standard
AIKEN, S.C. — Clipboard in hand, Deputy Jacquiline Edwards calls out the names of the Aiken County inmates who will go before Summary Court Judge Patrick D. Sullivan’s desk, waiting with anticipation to find out whether, on this day, they can walk out on bond or if they will have to stay behind the thick walls and barbed wire for the time being.
“You only respond when asked; don’t say anything until the judge says you can do otherwise,” Edward yells across a room that separates the Aiken County detention center’s records room and bond hearings.
In June, the Aiken Standard followed Edwards and the group proclaimed the “Dream Team” at the detention center off Wire Road to get a small peek of what goes on behind the walls of the detention center on any given day.
Edwards is just one of dozens of employees who show up to the detention center at 6:50 a.m. to prepare for the morning shift; the second shift doesn’t show up until about 6:30 p.m.
For four years, Edwards has worked the hallways, bond court and has overseen male and female pods of prisoners. She, by all accounts of her fellow coworkers, means business.
“You should see her when she goes into the women’s pod; the whole place goes silent,” one deputy said.
By 9:15 a.m., Edwards is ready to take the handful of men and women into bond court. There, each will meet the judge at his desk, answer “yes” or “no” to his question and sign forms about whether they will hire an attorney or use a public defender.
Charges for inmates can range from petty theft to, on this day, a man charged with sexually assaulting a juvenile.
‘An easier day’
It’s now 10 a.m., and Edwards is just walking out of bond court – what she calls “an easier day.”
“It can be tough; I’ve been in bond court for more than an hour, especially when we have 20 or so people go through,” Edwards said.
The detention center has approximately 30 security posts that must be filled all 24 hours of the day, with a minimum shift requirement of 16 officers working during the day and 13 working at night.
Some positions include overseeing the detention center’s enhanced camera system, manning desks in each pod or the housing unit for inmates.
During the summer months, crime increases, which means beds decrease at the jail and stress weighs on the employees.
Capt. Nick Gallam, who oversees the jail, said if one deputy calls out sick or needs to take a vacation, “it can shake up the process.”
In a 2011 independent staffing analysis conducted on the jail, the study suggested the department increase its force by 15 deputies; another study later suggested raising it by 16 deputies.
At the start of the summer, Gallam requested Aiken County Council add 11 new employee positions to his 2015-16 budget, which would mean an additional $589,067 in salaries and fringe benefits for his deputies.
Gallam received two new positions, as County Council attempted to stretch the budget in areas where it was feasibly possible without raising property taxes in the county.
Those two employees were added onto the detention center’s transportation unit, handling local extraditions and juvenile transports to and from the Department of Juvenile Justice in Columbia to Aiken for court.
“This is just a more economically feasible practice,” Gallam said.
Tight ship
By 11 a.m. deputies are immersed in fingerprinting individuals who come through the doors of the detention center.
Other deputies are poring over video cameras, watching every move every employee, guest or inmate takes.
Some deputies are transporting inmates, some man the jail’s entrance, and others oversee both male and female pods.
Although it appears tedious, these tasks can alter the jail’s flow if done inaccurately.
Cpl. April Toole knows all too well that slipping up while running a tight ship can make or break the flow of the day’s work.
Toole is overseeing the jail’s “CPOD,” a housing unit for inmates who are mentally ill, inmates cited for disciplinary issues and inmates under maximum security.
CPOD is not like any other housing unit in the jail.
The pod itself is separated into four units – all manned by a central unit complete with cameras and microphones to talk to the inmates, giving deputies an eye and an ear on every situation.
The individual units are separated by top and bottom floors – one floor must stay locked down until the other floor is back inside their cells, and vice versa.
“These cells are locked down 23 hours a day, they can come out for one hour for television, use the phone – that’s it,” Gallam said. “Which one would you rather be in?”
Every 30 minutes, Toole, with the help of two other deputies, checks each individual cell.
“I’m just looking to make sure they aren’t doing anything they shouldn’t be doing,” Toole said.
‘A certain attitude’
Out of roughly 40 to 50 officers, Toole is the only female employee in CPOD. Despite that ratio, she doesn’t let that disrupt her duties.
“Listen, being the only woman takes a certain attitude; I have to show these guys that this is my job, I don’t play because let’s remember – at the end of the day, I get to walk out of here,” Toole said. “Do they?”
But in a matter of minutes, the fear that inmates could even get a hint of power while in jail becomes a reality.
For what seems like the longest 10 seconds in the world, as Toole shows the Aiken Standard how to do an “inmate check,” the top cell doors fly open, as inmates on the bottom floor are already out of their cells and watching TV.
As inmates take that moment as a cue to step out of line, Toole rushes in, slamming the heavy doors shut, screaming, “Get back in; do it now. No.”
“That got you, didn’t it?” Toole said to the Aiken Standard. “That’s what I mean though; you got to be on at all times.”
At this point, it’s only barely touching 1:30 p.m. There are still five more hours to go.
Come next year, Gallam promises he will again request County Council add additional employees to his roster because, he said, “It’s the right thing to do.”
“We just don’t have that shift relief factor,” Gallam said. “There’s always someone at the Academy, someone in training; we have people out on military leave, or they’re sick. And as soon as it’s one, two people, even if people haven’t filled the position, you head into overtime. It’s just not a good deal.”