Deputies train to evacuate inmates in Collier County jail

Members of Collier County Sheriff’s Office during corrections emergency response team training at Collier County jail. Credit: WINK News.

School kids practice evacuation drills at school, and employees might also practice them at work. We wanted to know what happens during an emergency at a jail.

We visited Collier County Sheriff’s Office and received an exclusive look at how inmates are evacuated at Collier County jail centers Friday.

Most people don’t want to be in jail. But, when they are, sometimes they have to get yanked out of their cells, and that’s what the corrections emergency response team does — whether the inmates are noncompliant, there’s a hurricane or even a riot.

The process to evacuate inmates can be and looks violent.

“We’re going to do is require the inmate to come outside and do what we want,” Lt. Scott Green said. “We’ve had no injuries to inmates, and we’ve had no injuries to my officers.”

The corrections emergency response team undergoes CERT training at the Collier County jail, where we saw how CERT members remove a noncompliant inmate from their jail cell.

The training is important,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said. “The jail has has the care, custody and control of that inmate 24 hours a day, seven days a week in a dangerous and sometimes violent environment.”

We spoke to Deputy Brittany Driscoll, who told us she ready to join Collier County jail’s CERT team.

“It’s something that I wanted to try and do,” Driscoll said. “The guys walk in. They take care of business. People respect them, and I want to be part of it.”

Collier County’s jail system is the only agency in the state that provides training, and numerous agencies have taken the course since it started in 2014.

These deputies continue their training. It’s part of a 40-hour course. They come from four different departments, and they are going to be fully certified in CERT training.