Wood County Sheriffs Department

In a recent pair of episodes of WFHR’s Mid-Day Magazine host James J. Malouf had Sheriff Shawn Becker, Lt. Susanna Wagner and K9 officer Lola join him to discuss the new jail, Crisis Intervention Training, and the rescue raffle.

Jail Update

The new jail is finished and the inmates moved to the new building on Saturday March 22nd. In total 101 inmates were moved over the span of four hours with help from the Wood County Sheriffs Department. With the new, updated and larger, facilities Wood county will no longer need to pay out of county costs for imprisonment. Which means a small tax cut for the citizens of the community. Sheriff Becker took time within the interview to give credit to those local county and city employees and officials that put in the time and effort to make sure the citizens understood the need for this new facility.

A Focus on Mental Health

Becker and Malouf emphasized the mental health benefits to the inmates housed in the new facility. That was one of the reasons it was worth fighting for according to Becker. The new facility also allows for local groups that want to offer services to the inmates more access. Local churches and Mid-State Technical College specifically mentioned as inquiring for ways to offer services.

Crisis Intervention Training

Crisis Intervention Training has been underway with 14 classes completed. The training sees roughly 25 officers gaining added training for each class held by the Wood County Sheriffs Department. Two officers that attended these classes have been named CIT officer of the year by National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Doug Christiansen and Alesha Brundidge. This close connection with NAMI shows a shared commitment to understanding how best to handle the toughest situations safely for all.

Rescue Raffle

The Wood County Rescue is in need of a new truck. They are offering a calendar raffle, all of the proceeds will be used towards the purchase of the new truck. You can pick them up at the Wood County Sheriffs Department front desk. They stressed how important it is to have new updated equipment for the services it provides to the county. 

Important Links

To listen to this interview in full visit our website here.

This interview was recorded in cooperation with Wisconsin Rapids Community Media.

You can watch it on their Youtube page.