Hillsborough County’s Orient Road jail is getting a makeover for the RNC.
Hundreds of seats have been added, new phones installed and a streamlined plan is in place to speed up the booking process with the possibility of hundreds of arrests.
“You learn from what people did well and you learn from the mistakes of the past,” said Col. Jim Previtera of the Hillsborough Co. Sheriff’s Office.
Hillsborough County jails looked at what was done in Minneapolis and Chicago and built on that. They beefed up their incident command center to watch what’s happening inside and outside the jail and even moved in the court system to help speed the process along.
“It will be our job to interview as many people as possible as efficiently as we can and try to have those people prepared to go in front of a judge as quickly as we can,” said Julianne Holt of the Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office.
All 116 public defenders will be working 24-hour shifts inside the jail. Jail officials say even though they’ve made extra room and they’re bringing in extra help; they’re hoping the arrests will be low and they won’t have to use all the extra services.
“If that doesn’t happen, we’re prepared for whatever happens,” said Col. Previtera.
Hillsborough County moved all current residents from their Orient Road facility into the Falkenburg Rd. facility. They’ll be ready to take in possible arrests from the RNC starting Sunday at 6 a.m.