News from LBJ: Roster System and Inmate Movement

I talked to the Chaplain, and have two news items that will impact all of our LBJ volunteers. I called the Chaplain to see if we need to continue to take attendance at our services. I caught him right after he had attended a 3 hour meeting with the Sheriff, discussing this very topic. So it was a fortunate time to call.

I’ll summarize the news first, and then give some details. Here is the summary:

1. We no longer need to take attendance at our services.
2. The Chaplain recommends calling the jail before you go to check whether it is on over-ride or lockdown. The number to call is: 602-876-6001.

Now the details:

First, we no longer need to turn in the attendance sheet for each service that has the name and booking number of each inmate. We do still need to turn in the report on each service (with the yellow folders, blank forms in one, and completed forms in the other). So, in the words of the Chaplain, it’s ‘business as usual’, meaning the same as we always used to do things in the past.

This means that, at least for now, they will not be moving to the roster system, and we will have the DOs call for pods or dorms just as we always have. I think this is good news for us.

The second news item is that the new jail will be opening in April. This is the jail that has recently been built just to the east of LBJ (you’ve probably noticed the construction over the last year or so if you drive down Lower Buckeye Road to get to the LBJ). The impact of this on us is that men will be moved between jails, and the movement is unpredictable, with no advance warning. Even though the new jail is not officially open, it is still ready to accept new men at any time. The Chaplain said that, for example, they could move an entire level or an entire dorm to the new jail. This could cause disruption of our schedules and our services. Hopefully, things will get back to normal once the changes have settled down. I don’t know how long this will take, but I’m guessing several months.

The Chaplain confirmed to me that LBJ will not be closing, but rather that the availability of the new jail will result in reassigning men between jails. The only jail that will be closing is the Durango Jail.

Because of this unpredictable volatility, the Chaplain recommended that we call the jail first, before we go, to check whether it is on over-ride, or lockdown. The number to call is: 602-876-6001.

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to call me or email me. Thanks for your service, and for your patience with all these changes (and reversals of changes 🙂).