By Ben Benton, Staff Writer
Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Northwest Georgia and Southeast Tennessee counties have a mix of old and new jails.
In most cases where there’s a new jail, an “issue” arose to force counties to act, officials around the region said.
“If we had not constructed the jail when we did, today we would be spending about $2 million a year housing inmates outside of Catoosa County,” Sheriff Phil Summers said of the financial burden a lack of jail space puts on county taxpayers.
Bledsoe County, Tenn., officials last week shut down their 1800s-era jail because of overcrowding and fire code problems. Now Bledsoe inmates are locked up in Sequatchie County, which opened a $7 million jail last year.
Sequatchie officials said they responded to fears that a federal court might order them to build a new lockup to Uncle Sam’s standards.
Bledsoe County Mayor Gregg Ridley said plans for a new jail will go on the “fast track” to hold down inmate housing costs and officer overtime. Mr. Ridley and Sequatchie County Executive David B. Barker made a temporary agreement to house Bledsoe’s inmates at $17.50 a day each until a written agreement is completed, officials said.
While larger counties often pay for new jails through loans, bonds and structured court fees, most rural jail projects are funded through loans and property tax hikes. Some Georgia counties use earmarked sales tax increases, officials said.
Sheriff Summers said Catoosa County’s 248-bed, $8 million jail was funded with special purpose local option sales tax money and about $1 million in court fees.
“People want to see their tax money spent for other things,” Sheriff Summers said.
“They want law enforcement. They want these people who commit crimes to be incarcerated, but they just hate to pay for it,” he said.
“You can’t blame them,” he said. “I would a lot rather see the tax money go for a good education for our kids, good roads in the county, good recreation.”
POPULATION PRESSURES
Catoosa’s jail is its second since the 1970s, when a federal lawsuit forced the county to build a new facility to court-ordered specifications, the sheriff said.
The replacement jail completed in the 1980s “was a crisis situation” that met standards of a federal consent order, he said.
After 20 years, the jail was brimming over and the county was spending about $1 million a year to house inmates in other counties, he said.
The newest jail was built because of the financial strain of housing, medical and transportation costs, he said.
Officials in Walker and Dade counties did not respond to telephone calls last week seeking comment on their jails.
But as in Catoosa, Whitfield County, Ga., officials for years paid other counties to house inmates.
Brooke Bennett, a spokeswoman with Whitfield County, said the sheriff’s department paid out about $2 million a year before the county built a 525-bed facility in 2003 using $21.2 million in SPLOST money.
A new jail is planned in Polk County, Tenn., where Sheriff Bill Davis said the 1950s-era building is dilapidated and well above its capacity of 33 inmates.
“We were usually way over that number quite a bit,” Sheriff Davis said.
The County Commission is looking at how to fund the project in the coming fiscal year, he said.
Overcrowding and archaic facilities also led to new jails or expansions in Rhea, Meigs and Marion counties, officials said.
The old Marion County jail in 2000 was “in about the same shape Bledsoe was,” Sheriff Ronnie “Bo” Burnett said.
An $8 million jail and courtroom complex, funded with bonds, was finished in 2001, he said.
Next door in Grundy County, officials are eyeing a new jail and trying to come up with a way to fund it, according to County Mayor LaDue Bouldin.
Mr. Bouldin said he doesn’t have a cost estimate yet, but he’s planning for future expansion.
“We’re wanting to get the new design where you use the pods,” he said.
To the east, in Bradley County, Tenn., Sheriff Tim Gobble said a 408-bed jail completed in 2003 already is at capacity.
He said former Sheriff Dan Gilley had asked for a 500-bed jail but commissioners compromised with fewer beds.
Sheriff Gobble complimented Bledsoe Sheriff Jimmy Morris and proponents of a larger jail to replace the just-closed jail for looking toward future needs.
“The sheriff has good vision over there,” Sheriff Gobble said.
McMinn County Sheriff Steve Frisbie said the $5.6 million jail built there in 1992 was “state-of-the-art” when it was finished.
Since then, officials have doubled the number of beds, but the inmate population routinely exceeds the state certification of 192 prisoners , Sheriff Frisbie said.
The jail houses a daily average of 240 to 250 inmates, he said.
“We just need more bed space,” he said.
A jail committee has hired an architect to study solutions, the sheriff said.
Copyright 2007 Chattanooga Publishing Company