New jail provides more opportunity for inmate rehabilitation

The Imperial County Sheriff’s Office said on Wednesday that their new medium security detention facility is state-of-the-art.

Sgt. Juan Carlos Galindo said, “This particular facility will house a maximum of 274 inmates.”

It is geared more towards security and rehabilitation.

“Was brought along due to some of the deficiencies that our current facilities have. There’s not a lot of programming space available.”

He said the new facility provides more opportunity for offenders to be rehabilitated through educational programs.

“We’re able to incorporate programming areas, programming space, programming classrooms in this new facility,” Galindo said.

Galindo said the new facility provides a safer environment for staff and offenders. However, he said the current two older facilities will continue being in use.

“Our existing main jail facility will house maximum security offenders. Medium security offenders will be routed to our new facility. And our medium security facility will actually house true minimum security inmates. So, we’re able to get that separation of inmate classification levels,” Galindo said.

The new jail took nearly 7 years to complete, with a price tag of 33 million dollars, paid with government funds. It is named after a local retired sheriff: Oren F. Fox.