El Paso County to close jail video visitation building for repairs

Breeanna Jent, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
·1 min read

Dec. 29—El Paso County will close its jail video visitation building for about three months while it undergoes a remodel, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office announced.

The building, located at 2727 E. Las Vegas St. in Colorado Springs, will close on Tuesday. Officials expect construction to be complete on or about April 2, sheriff's spokeswoman Lt. Deborah Mynatt said.

The $350,000 project will upgrade the lobby and front desk area of the building that was constructed in 2005 and is in need of repairs, Mynatt said. The project will facilitate increased security, customer service, convenience and ease of access between inmates and their visitors, she said.

Planned upgrades include increasing the available workspace for visitors to complete paperwork while practicing safe distancing and a new waiting area, among others.

On average, the Video Visitation Center sees about 700 to 850 virtual and in-person visits a week, Mynatt said. During the remodel, visitors can still conduct online visitations with inmates at gtlvisitme.com. For more information on how to schedule visits, go to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office's inmate visitation webpage at bit.ly/3YUFuDz.

Funding for the upgrades was budgeted in the Sheriff's Office's 2023 spending plan, Mynatt said.

The jail sally port — a secure enclosed area where inmates are transferred between arriving and departing vehicles and the building — and jail lobby will remain open and will receive and release inmates as usual, she said.