Vigo Co. Jail security getting upgrades

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The Vigo County Jail recently upgraded their security system to make it harder for inmates to escape, and safer for officers.

Every transition--whether it be a prisoner transfer, or employees switching shifts--goes through the approval of one man stationed at the Jail Control Room.

Vigo County Deputy Thomas Little controls every movement of the jail with the touch of a button.

“We can control all the doors, all the cameras, we can control basically anything,” said Little.

Sheriff Greg Ewing recently had the control room moved into a much larger area allowing for additional monitors.

“It is basically the eyes and ears of the building,” said Ewing.

Little says the system controls every door and intercom system, helping regulate the flow of traffic coming in or out of the jail, as well as the courthouse.

Sheriff Ewing says they were able to make several changes and save thousands of dollars by hiring inside help.    

"A lot of what went on in there was simply moving what equipment we had and moving it to a new location and then expanding our capabilities and we were able to do a lot of that in house,” said Ewing.
    
Back in August of 2012 a significantly large brawl broke out at the Vigo county court house.
  
Due to the incident, the jail control room now has eyes from inside the court house for Deputy Little to monitor in case of an emergency.

"I can let all officers know what's going on; we have panic buttons on our radios, that if a panic button is hit it's sent to control. We know which officer has the radio and which officer may be in trouble,” said Little.
   
Sheriff Ewing says the next step is to install cameras inside the Vigo County Annex and inside the Juvenile Center.