JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Just days after a riot at the Hinds County Detention Center, deputies conducted a shakedown of the facility and found numerous weapons.
Friday afternoon broken pieces of a mirror, not found inside the Hinds County jail, are lay out on a table for the media. The broken mirror was turned into a weapon. Then there was a piece of metal from a ceiling tile used as a knife that inmates could hide in their pants.
A safety check at the Raymond facility also revealed a filed down hair brush. It can be used to prop open cell doors or worse...
"It can also be used to puncture somebody, to hurt somebody," explained Captain Joseph Daughtry, Hinds County Sheriff's Department.
Each cell at the Hinds County Detention Center was searched Thursday. Among the items deputies found, pills inmates received but didn't swallow and would sell.
Deputies even found a makeshift lighter using a cell phone charger.
With plenty of time on their hands, inmates even turned a sock into a weapon.
"The majority of this stuff that's on this table comes from within the facility. It's just something they were able to make, damage some off the property and make certain weapons out of it," says Daughtry.
Four cell phones were also found. A criminal investigation is being conducted to determine how the prisoners got the phones.
Hinds County Supervisor Kenneth Stokes says it's another example of why the jail is dangerous and a new one should be built.
"You got someone come to you that, you know trying to take your life on silly things. You know, you gonna do what you can to survive and if that means buying a shank, you gonna buy a shank. If that means trying to make you a shank, you gonna try to make a shank."
"All of this stuff here is used to inflict harm or for protection of themselves, but it can be a danger not only to the deputy but to other inmates," says Daughtry.
Stokes believes if the doors and other equipment worked properly, fewer weapons would be found in the jail.
He says shotty construction and a riot earlier this week sends a message to criminals.
"Why is it that you have a criminal who says, I don't want to go to jail in Madison and Rankin Counties, but I want to go to jail in Hinds County? That's because he considers it a joke. You know, where else can you go to jail...you push your cell door open, walk out, go down the hall to talk to other inmates," says Stokes.
The sheriff's department has implemented new security measures to help prevent visitors from bringing banned items inside the jail but for security purposes did not reveal those plans.
Deputies didn't know how many inmates had contraband in their cells.
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