Buchanan County Sheriff seeking jail security improvements 

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- Security upgrades may be on the way at the local law enforcement center as infrastructure issues loom. 

Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett recently visited the Buchanan County Commission to discuss security barrier improvements at the jail. 

“What this will do is it will install fence meshing across the upper mezzanine of the housing areas and then down the stairs that lead to that area to prevent any self-harm attempts or any assaults on staff,” he said. 

Puett said there have been incidents where inmates have attempted to harm themselves by jumping from the mezzanine.  

The sheriff’s department received grant funding that will match 50% of the cost of a project to help prevent such incidents. 

This move comes after the county was in early discussions for a new or remodeled law enforcement center last fall. Officials also looked at how they could repurpose the current building, which was built in 1985. 

“We have some areas of the facility that are really becoming problematic that we're going to have to either do a massive, updated remodeling or if we would build a new facility and address a lot of those issues,” Puett said. “Then we could use some of the current housing issues to resolve maybe other concerns that we have, such as juveniles or those types of things.” 

Puett floated the idea of using the current law enforcement center to hold juveniles if a new facility was built last September, but the county appears inclined to expand the existing juvenile justice center. 

“I know that this project is significant one way or the other, but it is going to be needed,” he said. 

Puett said a few areas in the jail, including the laundry, kitchen and booking rooms, have run into infrastructure issues.  

“When maintenance is constantly repairing and trying to put things together, we have several areas where they can't get parts for things anymore,” he said.