Lancaster County commissioners Wednesday are expected to approve a $250,000 upgrade to the video-surveillance system used at the county prison.
Included in the project is the addition of 85 more cameras that will be deployed to monitor areas previously considered "blind spots" in the prison.
"You have to keep pace with technology, and if technology affords you the ability to create a safer, more accountable facility, you have to take advantage of it," commissioners Chairman Scott Martin said.
In recent years, the county prison, its guards and its administrators have been targeted in a growing number of lawsuits alleging abuse and neglect in the treatment of prisoners.
The family of Luis David Villafane in one suit alleges Villafane was beaten by guards and later ignored as he committed suicide in a prison cell in November 2008.
An investigation of the incident ordered by Lancaster County Prison Board found a troubling lack of video documentation showing what did or did not happen to Villafane.
Reducing the number of blind spots in the prison was a recommendation of that investigation.
Under the plan the commissioners are expected to vote on at their weekly meeting at 9:15 Wednesday morning in the county administration building at 150 N. Queen St., the prison's complement of security cameras would grow from 225 to 310 and new computer equipment would be installed to increase the county's ability to store video footage captured by the cameras.
"Right now, we have a time limit of something like 30 or 60 days that we can store stuff," Martin said. "With this new system, we're basically removing that limitation."
The new cameras are fixed-position models, as opposed to ones that pan from side to side leaving blind spots as they move, and they will capture images with greater resolution, according to Don Raiger, the prison's research analyst, who is overseeing the project.
Martin stressed that the additional cameras would not eliminate every blind spot in the prison "since there are some areas where we simply cannot record" — such as showers — he said.
"There is no perfect remedy, but it's our job to limit the problem areas," he said. "This just helps from both sides to make it a more accountable facility.
"The cameras don't lie."
Jean Bickmire, legislative director for the local prison-reform group Justice & Mercy, lauded the system upgrades.
"I think it's a good idea," she said. "They need more surveillance, and we're hoping the cameras will help to deter people from doing things they shouldn't be doing."
The money to pay for the upgrades will be taken from bond funds secured for capitol projects.
Raiger said he expects the improved surveillance system to be operational by the end of the summer.