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Steamboat Springs — Routt County officials are optimistic the company installing a security system at the Routt County Justice Center will soon solve ongoing security issues facing the Routt County Jail.

On Tuesday, Sheriff Gary Wall toured the Routt County Jail with Lt. Dara Frick, County Manager Tom Sullivan, Building and Plant Director Tim Winter and other county officials. Winter gave a brief presentation on challenges the jail has faced since the company that supported the jail's security system stopped supporting the software in 2001.

"That put us in a position for a couple of years where we didn't really have anyone," Winter said.

As a result, some of the jail's automatic-locking doors occasionally malfunctioned by not fully locking, he said.

"The system has remained operational, but if something catastrophic happened, we wouldn't have had the support we needed," he added.

Wall said there had never been a security issue, such as an inmate escape, at the jail as a result of a door malfunction.

"It's not like someone could have escaped," he said. "The county was never at risk of someone getting out."

Winter said most of the facility's doors include a second door, that inmates are handcuffed and that jail staff are armed in case a situation were to arise.

Sierra Steel of Golden will be installing the justice center's security system and software. The county decided Sierra should be the company to bring the jail's security system in line because the justice center's tunnel will connect to the jail.

"We wanted to make sure we had systems that would integrate together smoothly," Winter said.

The Routt County Board of Commissioners approved a supplemental budget in 2006 to upgrade the security system at the jail using the same software at the justice center.

Sierra Steel is scheduled to begin installing the new security system software at the Routt County Jail in early February, Winter said.

The new software will allow Sheriff's Office staff to digitally "back up" everything that occurs in the building, including the jail, by using DVR, or digital video recording.