- May 1, 2024
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Inmates at the Flagler County Correctional Facility will have fewer correctional officers to contend with when they’re ready to leave their cell — two instead of five — but those two will have new tools in their arsenal.
"Nothing is more important than the safety of our correctional officers, and this kind of training ensures their safety, and also the safety of the inmates we house," Sheriff James Manfre said at a demonstration on Wednesday, Sept. 11. "This is really a different view of how we do insertions."
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies have spent several weeks working with U.S. Corrections Special Operations Group, a Virginia-based company that is instructing them in cell extraction and riot control techniques that rely less on brute force and more on psychology and technology. This is the third year the company has come to train the deputies at the facility, which first began using the company's "dynamic cell extraction" techniques in 2011.This year, they’re focusing on riot control techniques that use fewer officers and less force.
The new techniques use a “smaller, much more capable unit” to handle jail riots, said U.S. Corrections Special Operations Group Capt. Joseph Garcia. “In the past, it’s been 20 guys. Now they can quell a riot using two to four officers,” he said.
The company has a two-year contract wih the Sheriff's Office for $4,000 per year to instruct deputies in the new techniques, Garcia said. Most facilities — about 98% — still rely on numbers and brute force, he said, with officers carrying shields and swinging batons. He called those “troop and stomp” methods dangerous, for correctional officers and for inmates.
Garcia wouldn’t discuss details of the tactics U.S. Corrections has been training Flagler County Correctional Facility deputies to use, but he said they rely on separating problem inmates from others.
Deputies are also trained to use “less lethal” weapons, like Tasers and pepper spray, he said.
If those don’t work, they can fire rubber slugs. So far, deputies have never had to fire one at an inmate, said Correctional Facility Director Becky Quintieri. But if they did use them, they would aim for an inmate’s thigh, and the impact would cause a welt, she said.
The slugs, produced by Lightfield Ammunition Corp., travel at around 100 mph. The average Major League Baseball fastball moves at around 92 mph.
Expansion planned to alleviate overcrowding
The change in policy comes as the county plans jail renovations that are expected to cost more than $12 million and ease overcrowding.
The current facility, at 1002 Justice Lane in Bunnell, was built in 1991 to house a maximum of 132 inmates, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Bob Weber.
In August 2013, it held 127. But the numbers have often been higher, according to documents provided by the Sheriff's Office. The jail housed 150 inmates in November 2012, 139 in May 2013 and 170 in August 2010.
In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the average number of inmates housed each month was 155. So far this year, the average number has been 131.
