NATCHEZ — Physical changes at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office will change how members of the public enter the building and interact with the staff there.

The former lobby area on the western side of the building is being converted into office space for the department’s accreditation and grant writing officers, and the once open counter between the lobby and the front office has been walled off.

A glassed window allowing business to be conducted with those in the front office has been installed in the jail lobby on the northern side of the building, effectively shifting the front of the office to its former back.

Now, all business from the public will be done by entering the jail lobby and approaching the appropriate window, be it the jail’s booking officer on one side or the front office on the other.

Sheriff Travis Patten said that while he is utilizing the old space for offices, the main goal was to make the front office more secure.

“I had a concern for my employees in the front office, and in the day and time we live in you hear about law enforcement officers being attacked,” he said. “I didn’t want people to come across the counter at one of my guys and harm one of my employees.”

Having the grant and accreditation officers move into the former lobby as an office allows them to concentrate on their work without interruption while the business of the front office is conducted, Patten said.

The front office formerly had a barrier at the counter, Patten said, but moving the window to the jail lobby helps keep points of entry into the office to a minimum.

“Not everybody is a friendly, and I didn’t want these ladies to be vulnerable to that,” he said.

“If somebody comes in and needs to talk, they can come to the window and then we can let them in.”