The Clinton County Commissioners approved two significant moves affecting the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office Tuesday morning.
With some of the nearly 20 members of the Sheriff’s Department speaking to the Commissioners about vaping in the jail and the overall use of Commissary funds by the Sheriff’s Office, the Commissioners voted unanimously to eliminate any kind of vaping at the jail as well as vowing to look at how the Commissary funds are being spent.
“We went back and reviewed the ordinance that was put in place back in 2012 that prohibits smoking on county property,” said Commissioners President Josh Uitts. “We went back to amend that to include vaping and smokeless tobacco or any kind of synthetic equivalent to that or chewing tobacco of any sort.
“Nobody is allowed to smoke on Clinton County property according to the ordinance,” added Uitts. “All we’re doing is reiterating the ordinance and enforcing it.”
Staff members who spoke to the Commissioners said there was not as much damage to the facility due to the program being in place and that attacks on jail officers and others have diminished significantly.
“It was well within the ordinance when we started the program,” said Clinton County Sheriff Rich Kelly. “They (the Commissioners) were upset because we didn’t ask for permission, which we don’t need to because it is daily operations at the facility. It will inhibit the ability of these people to behave that are incarcerated.”
Kelly also called the item being smoked as “it’s not tobacco and it’s not any derivative of tobacco. It’s nicotine.”
Kelly added this will more than likely result in more issues for jailers and members of the department.
“It’s going to escalate things,” said Kelly. “We’ll be back to the high numbers of assaults on our jail staff and destruction of property, flooding of the cells, things like that. It’s one of those things where we were trying to treat people humanely, treat people as they want to be treated and we get the same in return. Without that we start treating people like they are not adults and that’s what’s going to happen.”
There is also a differing point of view when it comes to use of the Commissary funds.
Books in both Spanish and English have been purchased to help inmates improve themselves following their release.
Kelly added that professional services are included because they are “attorney fees”, which makes them legal.
“There are statutory limitations on what can and can not be purchased with the funds,” said Uitts. “We just need to make sure that’s being followed.”