Lockdown!

In the last week or so we’ve been having a lot more services cancelled due to lockdown or over-ride. It’s usually a rare occurrence, but In the past week it’s happened 6 times. Prior to last week, it’s happened 9 times in about 15 months. What is lockdown? Why is it happening more now? What can we do about it? I’ll try to address these questions.

Lockdown occurs when there is a problem that requires all the men to stay locked in their cells (on the Dormitory level there are no cells, but they have to stay in the dormitory). I don’t know all the problems that lead to this but it could be things like: a fight broke out; searches of cells; medical emergency. Lockdown can occur in a single pod, or on an entire level, or for the whole jail. Lockdown can last anywhere from 15 minutes to many hours. If it’s a single pod, some of you can try calling another pod, rather than giving up all together. Typically, once lockdown is announced, we cancel our service (at least for that pod), because we don’t know when it might be over. Over-ride is similar, except it occurs do to administrative reasons. For example, not enough staff to handle moving the men to/from the chapel service. Whether its lockdown or over-ride, the effect is the same for us.

I don’t know what the problem has been in the last week. I asked the D.O and he said they were having a problem with the “system”. When I asked what that meant, he didn’t have an answer for me. I’m guessing he means the electronic system they use to control things like cell doors, communications, etc. It seems like this problem has affected the whole jail, because our volunteers from different floors have been experiencing more lockdowns.

One thing we can do to help mitigate this is, before we go to our service, call the jail to see if it is on lockdown. This will only help if the lockdown occurs prior to our leaving for the jail, but it might at least help in some cases. The number you can call is: 602-876-6001. I haven’t used this in the past, but I may now, since lockdowns seem to be occurring more often in the last week.

It’s discouraging for us when we prepare our service, drive to the jail, etc, only to have our service cancelled due to lockdown. Or course, it’s also a disappointment to the men, who miss the service, and are stuck in their cells for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, it’s part of the ministry, and we can count our time spent as building up ‘treasure in heaven’, rather than wasted time (at least that’s how I look at it 🙂). I hope that the problem with the system, that has caused more lockdowns than usual, will be fixed soon!