Covington County Sheriff Blake Turman gives the credit to local correctional officers for a clean shakedown that happened last Thursday night.

“Not only am I holding the prisoners accountable for what we find,” Turman said. “We are holding the correctional officers accountable for what we find. They are actually getting out there and being more attentive and they are searching for it more.”

In February of this year, Turman held a surprise inspection and several homemade weapons were found. During this inspection, nothing was found.

“We have got a lot more checks and balances in place now,” Turman said. “But we are going to keep on doing these inspections to keep the inmates on their toes.”

Turman said that the community has given a lot of positive feedback about the shakedowns.

“I don’t think I have had any negative remarks,” Turman said. “The way that I feel that the public looks at it is that we are holding the inmates accountable for what they do. They are in there because they have done something wrong. So, we make sure that they don’t bring any of the contraband in here and we are doing pretty good of that.”

Another thing the sheriff is trying to do is keep the prisoners busy.

“If we keep them busy then they don’t just sit there and think about all the stuff they can tear up,” Turman said. “We keep them busy by getting them to paint, we have a basketball goal out there and I’m thinking about getting workout equipment for them as well.”

The shakedown took place in the work release block of the county jail, which is where Turman said a lot of the contraband goes through.

“This is the block that we have the most problems out of,” Turman said. “These people go out into the world every day, then come back and they have plenty of ways to bring contraband in. We searched everybody and we didn’t find anything.”

Looking forward to keeping the jail clean, Turman said that they are going to stay diligent.

“We have already shut down our own food services truck,” Turman said. “Just because we want to make sure that they aren’t bringing it in that way. We just need to stay on top of things, be consistent and not slack off.”