(MARION COUNTY, Ind.) --Sheriff Jack Cottey says he has found a way to keep the Marion County jail safer, and it doesn’t involve hiring additional guards or enforcing stricter rules.
All it takes is controlling the remote control.
Cottey is required by law to provide television, but inmates in the jail’s 54 cell blocks fight over what to watch, he said.
To solve the problem, Cottey and his staff have implemented a new controlled television system, which was completed last month. It’s operated by corrections officer Bill Watson.
Inmates Reginald McGraw , 39, and William Rivers , 52, said the system prevents fights and gang violence.
Rivers said he remembers watching a jail riot start because an inmate changed the channel while another inmate was watching a movie.
Now, Watson controls what prisoners watch.
Each cellblock, which houses at least eight inmates, has one TV protected by plastic.
Before the system was installed, Watson said, as many as 15 televisions a year would have to be repaired because they were damaged during fights.
The bilingual system has 20 channels that turn on every morning in each cellblock after the block has passed its cleaning inspection. They turn off at 11 p.m.
Cellblocks can choose one station from morning until 4 p.m. and another station from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Watson’s remote control is actually a $149,000 computer system, paid for by the jail’s commissary profits. It includes a VCR and DVD. Watson can reward well-behaved blocks with the movie of their choice.
The system is designed to:
Provide educational programming.
Review jail rules.
Explain the criminal justice system.Promote jail services.
Communicate emergency procedures.
Reward appropriate behavior.
The educational programming runs every day during lunch and dinner hours.
McGraw, who is in jail on drug-related charges, said inmates pay attention to the announcements.
“Everyone reads them because they’re on TV,” he said on Monday. “It’s cool because it lets you know what’s going on.”
During those hours, the in-house system provides important information such as special holiday visitation hours, religious and Alcoholics Anonymous meeting times, instructions on how to make bond and a review of jail rules.
“We’ve learned people behave better when they are not unpleasantly surprised by jail conditions and procedures,” said Cottey, adding that 100 to 200 new inmates enter the jail every day.
The system also allows jail wardens to turn off cellblock TVs due to bad behavior and to filter out violent programming.
Using TV as a reward for good behavior and a punishment for bad behavior is standard procedure in prisons nationwide, said Jamie Fellner , a researcher with Human Rights Watch who was involved in bringing television to Indiana’s two “supermax” prisons for inmates considered the most dangerous in the system.
“Wardens should censor the media as is necessary for the safety and security of its prisoners,” Fellner said. “As long as they’re not allowing inmates to watch only conservative news programs and not liberal programs, they aren’t violating prisoners’ human rights.”
But Pam Pattison , a spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Correction, says TVs aren’t a problem at most DOC facilities because inmates can purchase their own 10- to 13-inch TVs and don’t have to share them with others.
Inmates at the Marion County Jail can’t purchase their own televisions.
“We haven’t had any incidents of TV causing violence,” Pattison said. “We have more confrontations while playing basketball than watching TV.”
Pattison said the DOC can place announcements on its two to three televisions in common areas, but not in individual cells. Typically, she said, wardens communicate with prisoners through fliers on bulletin boards.
Michael Huff , warden of Marion County Jail II, a privately run annex, said his facility has 24 televisions in each open-dorm living area.
Only 10 channels are available on the closed-circuit system, and inmates can’t purchase their own TVs.
Cottey, Huff and Pattison agree that TVs are necessary in jails because, they say, too much idle time causes problems.
“TV keeps inmates occupied,” Huff said. “They schedule their days around TV programs. You’d be amazed at how many inmates schedule their days around soap operas.”
The in-house system and cable come at no cost to taxpayers.
Time Warner Cable provides free cable to all government agencies, and the TVs were bought with money from the commissary, the jail’s own convenience store, Cottey said.
Cottey got the idea for the in-house system from the Hamilton County jail in Cincinnati.
Joe Schmitz, director of corrections for Hamilton County, said the county’s closed-circuit system has been in place for more than a decade.
“The system avoids confusion,” Schmitz said. “If a change is coming, we let prisoners know well in advance, and everyone gets accurate info at the same time.”
John Turner , a deputy warden in Hutchinson , Kan., and a member of the Deputy Wardens Association, says closed-circuit systems are becoming more prevalent across the country.
“Any time you keep inmates more informed, you’re creating a safer environment,” Turner said.
(iSyndicate; The Indianapolis Star; Nov. 20, 2000) Terms and Conditions: Copyright( 2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.