Jailers, Staff Settling In At New Law Enforcement Center

With the new Mills County Law Enforcement Center and Jail opening for business Nov. 6, deputies, jailers and administrative staff are still settling in at the state-of-the-art $6.4 million facility.

The new jail and law enforcement center, located at 600 Industrial Ave. in Glenwood, is quite a transition from the county’s former law enforcement home on Glenwood’s town square. That 13-bed jail, which was built in 1915, had out-lived its usefulness and fell short of meeting jail standards for inmate and public safety and was not Americans With Disabilities Act compliant.

The new 36-bed, secure facility and sheriff’s office is a “night and day” difference from the former jail, said Mills County Sheriff Gene Goos.

“Everyone seems to like it (the new jail) but it’s a little overwhelming for some,” Goos said. “The technology and the size of the building is a lot to take in. We’re up and running. We’re just working out bugs right now.”

A major change for the jail is that Mills County can now house men and women prisoners. The former facility could only house male prisoners, meaning female inmates had to be farmed out to other counties at a cost to the county. In addition, the jail’s state-of-the-art cell and door controls, a sally port entrance for secure transportation and surveillance systems make jailers’ jobs easier and prisoners more secure.

Bill Simmons, who has worked as a jailer for 26 years, said getting used to the facility is a “work in progress.”

“It’ll take some time getting used to the systems and how the process works,” he said. “It’s getting better on a daily basis.”

Simmons said the biggest difference he sees is the leeway the jailers have in where they can put inmates.

“We have maximum security cells, we have medium security cells, we have minimum security cells and we have female cells,” Simmons said. “Before, all we had was two basic lock down systems. We have more room for holding, we don’t have to change everybody out immediately and put them in cells if we have a female coming in. It gives us a lot more things to work with.”

Learning the layout and the system for getting through secure doors has taken some getting used to when all that was previously was required of jailers was a key. Secure doors in the facility are controlled by a manned-central control hub via camera and intercoms.

“It takes a little more time to get from room to room with the size but it’s getting smoother,” Simmons said.

The first prisoners were marched in to the new facility at 3 p.m. Nov. 7.

Goos said there’s still kinks to work out – some heating issues, sorting through moving boxes – but the facility is up and running and already receiving high marks.

“Everything is just more secure now,” Goos said. “On the jail side, this is just a more secure building. Everything is pretty user friendly and the transition is going smooth.”