Lt. Chris Piombo looks into a cell that's window was damaged when inmate Jose Delgado ripped the phone off the wall and used it to shatter the windows glass Monday evening. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Cost to taxpayers: Roughly $20,000 a year

Broken windows at the Lodi City Jail adding up to hefty price

For the third time in the last year-and-a-half, an inmate at the Lodi City Jail has broken a cell window that will cost about $10,000 to replace.

Jose Angel Delgado, 32, is facing felony charges related to the Monday evening incident and a judge set bail Tuesday at $175,000. He could also face more charges due to an outburst in court.

Criminal matters aside, odds of the city getting any actual restitution for the broken window are slim.

In other words taxpayers are paying roughly $20,000 a year to replace jail cell windows — which take months to replace because they're specially ordered.

Police officials are going to see if they can get tougher glass, but that's a challenge because they are not simply made of glass. The thick windows are a material that's not quite plastic and not glass, and it allows electricity to pass through, said Lt. J.P. Badel.

The electricity is linked to a system that allows jailers to push a button and turn the windows opaque. They use it to move women and men without having them see one another, as well as to move juveniles through the jail because they cannot be in the same area as adult inmates.

Of the jail's 10 cells that can hold two people each, two now have broken windows. The jail is used as a holding area for all prisoners going to court in Lodi, and it often fills up, especially after holiday weekends.

An easy alternative would be to put bars in front of the windows, Lt. Chris Piombo said, but he noted that the Bureau of Prison guidelines call for alternatives, because inmates can hang themselves from bars.

Though the windows are supposed to be tough, they weren't strong enough for an inmate to break one with his fist in September 2006, the first time a window was broken.

The 21-year-old inmate, who was in jail for a misdemeanor offense, broke a finger in the process.

About a month or six weeks ago, a county inmate broke another window, Badel said.

And on Monday evening, Delgado allegedly yanked a phone off the wall and slammed it against the window at least twice, as the cracked window indicates.

Delgado was initially arrested around 7 p.m. Monday, a day after he was accused of brandishing a gun at another man. Police stopped him near Lodi Avenue and Washington Street, and would have booked him at the jail and released him on a misdemeanor citation, Piombo said.

But then Delgado allegedly began fighting police, leading an officer to call for rapid back-up. Delgado fought so hard that he bent a patrol car door, Piombo said.

Once at the jail, Delgado was calm and was placed in a normal jail cell. About 10 minutes later, he became agitated, started banging things in his cell and then broke the window, Piombo said.

Delgado was restrained in a chair used for that purpose, then placed in a different cell without a phone.

He appeared in Lodi court Tuesday, where proceedings were halted when he allegedly made a comment in the courtroom. A judge issued a protective order for someone who was possibly threatened.

That matter is still under investigation and a prosecutor declined to say specifically who was threatened, since charges have not yet been filed.

Delgado is now being held in the San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp, where cells still have bars.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.