Sheriff Plans Project To Improve Canadian County Jail

Night and day at the Canadian County jail, the accused are booked in or taken out.

“There’s a lot of traffic coming and going,” said Sheriff Chris West.

Currently, part of that process includes walking on an open sidewalk into the jail doors.

West said a sally port, or secured garage, would mean more protection for the inmates.

“Sometimes we arrest really bad people that there would be family members of crime victims that would want to come to do some harm to them,” he explained.

It would also mean more protection for the public. 

“You can raise the garage door, pull in and close it, so when you take them out, it reduces their ability to escape,” West said.

The building would reportedly be about 3,500 square feet and also provide storage for jail supplies.

In all, West said it could easily cost several hundred thousand dollars.

He said they have the money for it in the sheriff service fees accounts and asset forfeiture account.

“We’re basically going to build a sally port using drug money, and probably the majority of it. And so I think that’s a really good use of those civil asset forfeiture funds,” he told News 9.

Next, the sheriff said they'll select an architect and could potentially break ground on the project around the first of the year.