CINCINNATI — Millions of dollars in renovations and improvements are being made at the Hamilton County Justice Center in downtown Cincinnati.

The sheriff has been highlighting the need for these changes for the safety of the deputies and the population inside the jail.

What You Need To Know

  • Two units inside the Hamilton County Jail have undergone significant renovations and improvements

  • The biggest changes are to add new locks, window screen security and updates to the control center

  • Inmates have been tampering with locks by stuffing paper and plastic inside

  • The goal is to have the new windows and locks in by the end of October

Before the improvements, inmates were using paper, plastic or whatever they could to cause a jam in the door lock, and the new heavy duty metal on the windows wasn’t there before.

“Lots and lots of little pieces — you see they’re jammed down in here. Look, a little piece of plastic and a piece of paper there,” said Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey as she dug out small pieces of paper and plastic out of a door lock with her knife.

Before taking them away, McGuffey said one of the most commonly-used items to jam a lock were playing cards.

Once a lock is tampered with over and over, it doesn’t work anymore.

“Every cell in this institution is going to work, and if people break the law, we are going to incarcerate them,” McGuffey said.

 McGuffey unveiled the newest additions to the renovation project in a unit of the jail that has been upgraded.

The biggest improvements are the locks and windows.

“The lock project was about $4.5 million, (and) the window screen project was around $2 million. All together in the last couple of years, the county spent little over $20 million on this facility,” Capt. Dan Wilson with the sheriff’s office.

“It makes it a very tight, clean seal and we’re very proud of these locks. We researched it and we got the best in the industry,” said McGuffey while demonstrating the new lock.

The new locks will make it possible for every cell to be usable.

McGuffey hopes the upgrades will also lead to more deputies coming on board.

“I am very proud to announce that within the next three months we will be fully staffed,” the sheriff said.

The goal is to have 320 officers working in the facility.

“We have an academy with over 40 people in it right now that’s going to start in August. This is definitely helping recruiting and it’s helping morale,” said Chief Deputy Jay Gramke.

The Justice Center has been around since 1985, and as these new renovations come to light, safety for both the deputies and inmates will be in the spotlight.

“What we’ve done here is we have renovated this jail a fraction of the cost of a new jail and we have gotten the taxpayers the best deal possible to incarcerate individuals who have broken the law,” said McGuffey.

The sheriff’s office hopes to have all the locks and screens in place by the end of October.

Once renovations are complete, they plan to hand out playing cards.