By Tim Horan
The Salina Journal
SALINE COUNTY, Kan. — An inmate cut a 311/2-by-12-inch hole into the concrete ceiling of the Saline County Jail last month, Sheriff Glen Kochanowski told Saline County commissioners Tuesday, but he wasn’t able to crawl through because of a metal bar used to support the ceiling.
Kochanowski told county commissioners about the incident as they discussed the need for video security for deputies on the road and in the jail.
Kochanowski said his staff have been looking for grants to upgrade the jail video system, but there aren’t any available. There is no timeframe for adding cameras to areas of the jail that currently can’t be observed with security cameras.
“All we can do is put it in the budget if the county can come up with the money,” he said. “We keep looking for grants that will help with those type of things, but there are not a lot of funds available. We just need to work through the budget process.”
On Tuesday, Saline County commissioners authorized the purchase of a Network Video Recorder to replace a server, at a cost of up to $17,000. The server will keep the current surveillance system in operation.
Hole made with metal rail
Capt. Brian Shea said after the commission meeting that the ceiling is composed of wire mesh, plaster and 11/2-inch-thick concrete.
Shea said the hole was found in a handicapped-accessible cell. He said that the inmate pulled from the cell wall a metal railing meant to be used by a person in a wheelchair to use the restroom. The railing was used to scrape the concrete from the ceiling.
“I found it (the bar) up in the ceiling hole,” Shea said. “It was bent up like they had used it to chip the concrete away. But they didn’t get it open wide enough to get through it yet.”
After the inmate was transferred to a state prison, other inmates didn’t continue working on the hole, Shea said.
Shea said that had the inmate broken through the concrete, he would have been able to get into the ceiling.
“I don’t know if he would have gotten out,” Shea said.
The ceiling is at a 45-degree angle to allow for natural light to shine through a window. The hole was on the angled part.
Toilet paper, toothpaste cover
Shea said the hole was out of view of security cameras and wasn’t discovered until after the inmate was sent to state prison.
Kochanowski said the hole was camouflaged.
“They will take toilet tissue and get it wet and mix some toothpaste with it,” he said. “They will make a cover and it dries hard.”
He said it is common for inmates to try to pound holes in walls.
“They wouldn’t go anyplace, but they try,” he said. “They try to defeat the windows in the facility. They have tried chipping around the windows thinking they are going to come out. Those things are in the concrete with steel bars.”
He said inmates try to take substances such as Karo syrup to cover up holes.
Two escapes early on
Shea said that when the jail first opened in 1995, there were a couple of escapes, but flaws that allowed for those escapes have been fixed.
One inmate got into the ceiling and crawled into an air-handling unit on the roof. Those units are now reinforced with metal.
Another inmate broke out a window. The glass later was replaced with unbreakable glass.
There has not been a breech of the walls since that time, Shea said.
Antonio M. Brown Sr. walked out of an unlocked holding cell in 1993 and escaped from the jail. He later turned himself in.
Body camera demonstrated
Kochanowski recorded part of the morning commission meeting on a body camera, demonstrating a small body recording device. He said he later will return to commissioners with a recommendation for purchasing body cameras for deputies and corrections officers.
“We would like to have cameras for all of our road deputies and probably quite a few in the jail, because that is where we have a lot of problems,” he said.
He said the deputies were going to test the portable cameras with the intent of making a purchase with federal drug forfeiture funds.
Kochanowski said the portable cameras interface with the sheriff’s office video system and car cameras, which were put in place in 2006.
County Computer Technology Director Brad Bowers said the portable cameras cradle into a device so the video can be uploaded for reviewing.