Monday morning the Marshall County Commissioners approved a contract to install a new phone system in the Marshall County Jail.
Sheriff Matt Hassel and Matt Pitney, Director of Communications at the jail told the county commissioners that they have experienced major phone issues since December 7th, not with the 911 system but with the local lines.
Marshall County 911 , Matt Pitney told the commissioners that the phone number used by the public to call the sheriff’s department has been out since Dec. 7 and the staff could not make outgoing calls Monday morning.
Pitney said the initial problem was a power supply and after having one overnighted and installed not everything came back up. They’ve had no incoming calls on one of the local lines and no voicemail.
The problems with the phones are not a surprise to the commissioners, Sheriff Hassel told them a year or so ago that they were having trouble getting parts for the phone system because it was so old.
The jail has been working for several months to bring VOIP, voice over internet, into the jail. Indiana Electronics has already completed an audit of the jail facility to determine the number of phones and special needs there are.
Pitney said the phones were ready to be installed as soon as the commissioners approved the contract. The contract price was not discussed during the meeting but Pitney did say that the cost would be less than what they are paying to Century Link now.
The commissioners unanimously approved a one year contract with Indiana Electronics that will start on January first.
