The Webster County Jail will soon have a new, high-tech method of subduing unruly or violent inmates.

The Webster County Crime Stoppers approved a $2,300 donation on Friday to purchase a pair of electric shock gloves and an E-Band Restrictor for the Webster County Jail.

“This is a new technology,” said Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener. “I did a class in Kansas where some officers and deputies down there are using these state-of-the art shock gloves in their facility to keep inmates under control.”

The shock gloves, known as Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, or GLOVE, can be used to briefly incapacitate inmates who are behaving unruly or violent toward staff or other inmates in order to get them to comply with staff.

The GLOVE when touched to human skin will generate an output of 210 volts of electricity, intensifying up to 320 volts, depending on how long it is held to the skin.

“They describe it as a ‘game changer’ because when the inmates see somebody put those on, they know what that is,” Fleener said. “It takes away the violent encounters and having to actually fight with them.”

Unlike Tasers, the GLOVE is rechargeable and does not require new cartridges after every use. It also does not require medical attention for the inmate after use because it does not penetrate muscles or organs, unlike Tasers.

The E-Band Restrictor is used like an ankle monitor with a remote to deliver a shock similar to the GLOVE to subdue inmates who are committing acts of violence or attempting to escape.

“We’re the first county in Iowa that’s ever looked at this, this is new to Iowa so we’re hoping to be a trendsetter for that,” Fleener said.

The E-Band and the GLOVE set have been ordered and should arrive in the next month, the sheriff said.

“We think it would help our jailers and law enforcement and I think it’s a good way of putting our money to use,” said Webster County Crime Stoppers President Terry Cook.

During the Sheriff’s Department report, Fleener told the board that the Webster County Jail is at maximum capacity for inmates and the county currently has 15 inmates “farmed out” to other jails in the region.

“Our department is busy just like everybody else,” Fleener said.

Crime Stoppers board member Kim Alstott, who is also a Fort Dodge City Councilman, asked Fleener if there was any possibility for a new jail to be built to house more inmates in the future.

“Early in the spring, I did some research and a group called the Samuels Group, which is an investment and architectural-type guidance group out of Des Moines came in August and met with the supervisors and talked about a five-step process to that,” Fleener said.

The first is called a “phase study,” where they examine the five-year rates of crime, population, incarceration rates, he said. The group will then come back in a few weeks with a recommendation on how a new law enforcement center should look and what it should cost if the county decided to go forward with the project.

“When that happens, then that study will go in front of the Board of Supervisors and if it’s feasible and favorable, then the board could move forward on that referendum,” Fleener said. “I think our goal is to create an executive board with the city that would oversee that and then slowly work to voting on it down the road.”

The county is just “bleeding” money by not having enough room to house all of the inmates, the sheriff said. Currently, it costs $70-$100 a day for each Webster County Jail inmate housed in other jails. Monthly, the county is spending tens of thousands of dollars on this — not including paying jail staff and sheriff’s department staff to transport inmates back and forth between the Webster County Courthouse and the jails they’re housed in.

Fleener said that if the project does eventually come to fruition, it would be to build an entirely new law enforcement center to house the jail, Webster County Sheriff’s Office and Fort Dodge Police Department.

“We’d probably turn the (current) law enforcement center into office space down stairs and keep the jail as a holding facility for nighttime arrest before they go to court,” he added.

But for now, no official action has been taken on any potential plan to build a new Law Enforcement Center.

Fleener also gave an update on the new security measures at the Webster County Courthouse.

“It seems well-received by people who come through there,” he said.

Two firearms have been stopped at the door, the sheriff said. One firearm owner secured it in a lock box before entering and the other firearm owner put his weapon in his vehicle.

“The courthouse people like having it (the security),” Fleener said.