What is Correctional facility utilities?
Correctional facility utilities are the water, electricity, fuel and HVAC services consumed by jails, detention centers and prisons, which operate continuously at high occupancy behind security controls.
Who runs these sites
County sheriffs and jail administrators run local jails, state departments of corrections run prisons, and some sites are privately operated. One secure campus combines housing units, kitchens, laundry, medical care and intake. Cell plumbing can be flushed repeatedly or damaged, flooding a unit. Inspection and repair are scheduled around counts, movements and lockdowns, so a leak can run longer than it would in an office.
Scale and energy intensity
The Bureau of Justice Statistics counted 2,850 local jail jurisdictions holding 734,470 people at midyear 2019. EIA's 2018 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey groups jails with police stations, fire stations and courthouses as public order and safety buildings, which used 86.3 thousand Btu per square foot, against 70.4 for all commercial buildings.
Housing-unit data from aQ WaterGuard
aQ WaterGuard meters water by housing unit, so flush surges, floods and night flow show on the water balance without a walk-through of a secure area. aQ EnergySmart tracks the boilers, chillers, kitchen and laundry that run every hour of the year. The device Health tab tells staff which sensor in which unit needs replacing before they arrange an escort.