The public was invited to visit the Mason County Detention Center open house for an opportunity to view the facility and see how things are run.
Mason County Jailer Lisa Kern-Yeary said she wanted to hold an open house for the facility in order to showcase the number of upgrades which improve the quality of life for both staff and inmates
“We kind of wanted to thank the community for all their support, over these two and a half years we’ve been here,” she said. “We’ve been telling the public of all the things we wanted to do to this facility to upgrade it and I thought it would be a great opportunity to open it up and let them come and see what we’ve done in person and for the commissioners, the fiscal court, Judge (Joe) Pfeffer, who have supported us through all this.”
At the open house, members of the public are given a tour through the detention center, and are given information on all of the improvements that have been made.
Among some of the improvements in the facility were a new classroom, which was built by splitting the recreational area into two rooms and will be used to teach Kentucky Department of Corrections approved classes, improved cameras able to record three months worth of footage, and new flooring.
One of the improvements in particular, which impressed many of the visitors was the new full body scanner.
“It’s just another tool in our arsenal to help with contraband coming into the facility,” Kern-Yeary said. “When we ordered it and got it delivered, we were the first in the state of Kentucky to have one like this. It’s made by a company called Tek84 out of California, and they develop and do technology for the Israeli government and they use these types of scanners in their airports there.”
Nearly all of the improvements made to the detention center, Kern-Yeary said, was paid for by commissary funds.
Once the tour was complete, visitors were treated to a meal made by detention center staff. Kern-Yeary said this event is also intended to serve as a sort of appreciation for first responders who work closely with the detention center.
“We just want to show our appreciation,” she said, “and, 9/11 being tomorrow, we just want to honor first responders and all they do and open up our facility.”
Larry Dodge, of Mays Lick, along with his wife, Elaine, said they were all together impressed with the improvements that were made in the detention center, and that they do a lot to improve the situation of everyone involved with the facility.
“The control room upgrades from the black and white camera to the new technology and the automatic door locks that they’ve got can be controlled,” he said. “Just the overall security has improved. They’ve improved the conditions for the inmates, and gave them some opportunities they wouldn’t have had in the old jail.”
With the resources that were available available to the detention center, Kern-Yeary said she is relatively satisfied with the work being done in the facility.
“I do think that we do our best to keep our facility looking good — up to good working standards — and we do try to help the inmates anyway we can,” she said.
Kern-Yeary said with the start of this open house, she plans to make this opportunity for the public to see where their tax dollars are going toward a yearly event.
