Broken elevator causing problems at the Pueblo County Jail

A broken elevator is hampering daily operations at the Pueblo County Jail.

Undersheriff J.R. Hall said it’s going to take 12 weeks to make repairs in the 30-year-old elevator.

It was used to transport inmates, food and supplies throughout the jail.

The jail is now down to one elevator.

Hall said the broken elevator causes a safety issue, especially with a jail that’s overcrowded.

“That’s going to put a burden or double the work on the second elevator. What we’re worried about with facilities is that it’s going to cause the other elevator to break down,” he said.

If there are no elevators to carry out the duties for the workers, that could cause more problems.

“If we have no elevators, we would use stairwells. Stairwells with leg restraints and those types of things are dangerous enough plus they represent a danger to our deputies in the sense that you want that control to be off the floor and not with the deputy as they are escorting inmates,” Hall said.

People in Pueblo County rejected a tax increase in November which would have gone to building a new jail.