Heat tileAn electrical shortage caused a compressor on one AC unit to fail early Monday morning, said Jason Clark, superintendent of corrections. That failure shut down air conditioning to the Bravo 3 cell unit.
That cell block can hold a maximum of 40 inmates and was not full during the outage, Clark said, although he wasn't sure exactly how many people were being held inside. When full, the jail can hold 1,062 inmates.
The unit was out all day Monday and Tuesday, and was fixed byTuesday evening, Clark said.
During that time, jail officials opened the door between the Bravo 3 and Bravo 2, where the AC was still working, and used a fan to blow cooler air into Bravo 3, Clark said.
"It wasn't inhumanely hot," he said. "It's something we keep a close eye on."
A second unit malfunctioned in an Alpha cell block as well, but only one inmate was being housed in the affected area, Clark said. That cell block is usually used for overflow or to isolate inmates for medical reasons.
That unit had to be completely replaced and the new unit was up and running by Wednesday afternoon.
Silverdale spokeswoman Bianca Hudson confirmed that all the AC units at the jail were working by around 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Clark said that inmates affected by the outage were given extra water and no inmates reported heat-related medical issues during the outage.
Silverdale is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America. Critics have questioned the ability of CCA to safely operate the jails under its control.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas.