CASSOPOLIS — For the 12th year in a row, Cass County Jail passed its inspection with 100 percent compliance.

“We’re the only county in the state of Michigan that’s had 12 consecutive years,” Sheriff Joe Underwood advised the Board of Commissioners to applause Thursday night.

Underwood, accompanied by jail Capt. Richard Affriseo, commented, “It’s not something that comes about easily. The department of corrections started inspecting jails and lockups in 1998 to make sure they were in compliance with rules and regulations that it had set forth. It’s a booklet of about 10 pages. It’s not something you can get ready for overnight. Our jail inspection was on the 27th and we started the next day getting ready for the next one. It covers not only classification of inmates (of which September began with 122, which is about capacity), your policies and procedures, your medical treatment of how you take care of your inmates and their necessary needs. Their necessary needs, not what they want.”

The sheriff continued, “It involves the health department, which has to come out and inspect the jail. Food service. We have to maintain a certain amount of calories that the inmates have to receive on a daily basis. We have to have a schedule of how we feed the inmates. They inspect all of that information and come out to check that we’re not only compliant, but sanitary.”

Underwood said his staff works diligently on such procedures as firearms, use of force, fire safety equipment being up to date, the emergency operations plan and emergency release of inmates.

“This is not all done by the jail staff,” the sheriff said. “The county has a good maintenance director” in Dave Dickey. “He and his staff, when we have a problem, they’re out there taking care of it. It’s not the ‘new jail’ anymore,” but an aging facility which has passed its 20th anniversary.

“It’s the old jail,” Underwood said. “Things need to be fixed. You’ve seen by the bills you’ve gotten over the past couple of years that things break down. The jail has lasted a long time, not by happenstance, but because of a crew that works hard to make sure things are taken care of.”

Underwood noted the jail population was up this summer.

“Crime is not going down,” he said, “with the shape the economy’s like. The drug team and the courts are extremely busy.”