It is about the fifth time that a sprinkler has been tampered with at the new jail in Niagara Falls.
"About three and a half weeks after we moved in we had our first incident," said Niagara Falls Police Chief John Chella.
Chella says an inmate tampered with the sprinkler head, and was able to activate it. He adds the first time around, it took a little time to react to it, and turn off the system. The cell and the block were hit by the flood.. Since then they have had four more incidents. Officials think inmates are passing along information on how to do it. After the second time, they realized they had a problem on their hands. They have a new sprinkler head. It is already being tested in another cell.
"We are confident that as we install this sprinkler head in all of the cells, hopefully we have alleviated the problem," Chella added.
The sprinklers should be in soon, and will be paid for by Niagara Falls.
"It is frustrating, and again I think to have a couple of growing pains in moving into a building like this is not unexpected," said Mayor Dyster.
But while the city will pay for sprinklers, the mayor says they are asking a judge to demand restitution for the damage from those charged in the five incidents. Chella has a warning for anyone thinking about doing this
"We are charging felony criminal mischief and before any plea is accepted for any charge, we want restitution. The city wants restitution. To the tune of about 1000 dollars per incident," said Chella.
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