By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office continues to transfer inmates back to the newly remodeled jail, but issues with electronics have slowed progress.

According to Ellis County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes, there were 32 inmates housed in the county jail, as of Monday, with approximately 40 still housed out of county.

Smith-Hanes told the county commission Monday they are working to fix some of the problems but the electronics continue to present issues.

“The elevator is an issue. The doors are an issue. The hatch is an issue,” Smith-Hanes said “Basically anything that has a cord attached to it is an issue.

“But all the manual stuff is working just fine; they feel like they are making progress,” he added.

Progress is about 60 to 90 days behind schedule, and it is costing the county at least $70,000 per month to house inmates out of county.

The newly remodeled facility features a control center that controls everything from the locks on the jail cells to security cameras across the facility.

According to Smith-Hanes, the person who was working to resolve the problem was in Hays on Monday and was hoping to have the issue resolved by the end of the day. He said they were installing new hard drives Monday.