SAFFORD — Security at the Graham County Jail is getting an upgrade.
During Monday’s meeting, the Graham County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of two replacement cameras for the jail’s exterior, at a cost of about $8,500.
The existing cameras have been in place since 2017 and are out of warranty.
“Because we don’t know when they’re going to go out, and we’d like to get as much bang out of them as we can and just keep them going, but maybe budget, like we talked about the A/C units, budget for four or five a year so we don’t have to come to the board when they do actually go out, because they are fairly expensive,” said County Manager Dustin Welker.
T.J. Perez, with the Sheriff’s Office, said the cameras will be used on the exterior of the jail. Following an inquiry about contraband in the jail by Supervisor John Howard, Perez said attempts to bring contraband into the jail occur by incoming inmates attempting to “mule” the item in, and items are caught during bookings and searches.
“We normally stop it, and are able to stop it, before it gets past our booking area,” Perez said.
One of the new cameras will be trained north toward the roundabout, and the other trained on the employee parking lot.
