Sullivan Jail Project Nears the End of its Initial Phase

Inmates and staff at the Sullivan County jail have endured construction inconveniences for more than a year — since March 2000.

Now, the $6.85 million expansion and renovation, the first-phase of a projected four-phase project, finally is nearing its final form, officials say.

The jail, already the largest in the region, is increasing its rated capacity from 317 to 502 inmates in an effort to keep up with a growing jail population.

“We’re going to use this section this weekend for weekenders,” sheriffs Maj. Boda Lawson said while

standing in an area eventually to be used strictly for work release inmates.

The area used to be the Sheriffs Office’s Records Division and administration area, but those have been moved to a new administrative wing on the northern end of the building.

Lawson, who oversees operation of the Jal tor Sheriff Wayne Anderson, said he was pleased with progress on the project, which originally was scheduled to be finished early next month.

Delays caused by weather have pushed the date to the first of September, officials said.

New cells in the women’s section will house two women each but may, if population allows, be used to house just one inmate each, Lawson said.

Capt. Brenda Hensley, second in command under Lawson, said that in the current jail, only nine one or two-person cells are available, That will increase from zero to 12 for women inmates and from nine to 11 for men. Future building phases include more two-person cells.

Claude Smith, the county’s construction manager, said the project is well-designed for current and future needs and will lend itself to easily to future expansion.

The current building, completed in 1987, was not built with future needs in mind, he said,

The capacity figures — both old and new — include 96 beds in a jail annex, a nearby building that was intended to be a temporary facility that has become a permanent one.

An escape from that facility about 11 years ago prompted a sign company owner to put an “Inmate Crossing” sign on Blountville Bypass near the jail, and an escape also occurred from the main jail in its early years.

Steps have been taken to lessen the likelihood of another escape, and now, Lawson said, the issue of concern with the annex is the cost of operating what amounts to a separate jail.

But officials do not foresee being able to close the annex until the three future phases of the jail expansion — projected in the late 1990s to cost more than $16 million — are built.

The total capacity once all four phases have been completed would be 1,056, officials said.

“All the electrical, cooling and heating is being put in now to handle this phase and the other three phases,” Smith said.

The County Commission’s Budget Committee tentatively has recommended not funding three proposed jailer positions for fiscal 2001-02 — positions that would cost more than $87,000 a year each, plus benefits.

Officials say the added staff is needed to help oversee new areas of the jail.

Lawson said the jail could be operated without them but that it would stretch personnel thin.

“It’s going to put a strain on our officers,” the sheriff said. “We’ll live with it if that’s what we get.”

The new facility includes a law library, required for inmates, and a facility for video arraignments in which an inmate at the jail could be arraigned via closed-circuit television by a judge in Bristol Tennessee or Kingsport.

In addition, Lawson said, the new facility has a main control center and two backups for use in case inmates riot and take over part of the facility.

Chief Deputy Bill Hickman said the jail population, which early in Anderson’s term swelled to 585, now is down to about 375 a day.

He said Anderson has been diligent in sending inmates to counties willing to accept them for the money the state pays.

In addition, both said they have been able to move out inmates to other jails because other sheriffs understand the difficulty of doing a jail expansion and renovation while housing prisoners.

The sheriff said he hopes a new Greene County jail to open next year will help ease the inmate population in Blountville.

“But in the future, I think we’re always going to have this problem,” Anderson said of crowding.

Anderson praised his staff, Knoxville contractor Crossley Construction and all subcontractors for keeping things going while working around inmates and in some cases without normal cooling.

A complete replacement of the cooling and heating system, which uses water that circulates in pipes, left the facility to rely on fans and, in the case of a heat-sensitive computerized fingerprinting system, a window air conditioner.

A 3-ton cooling tower was supposed to already be on the roof of the old section of the jail and installed, but it hasn’t been placed there yet because the roof and girders underneath it would not support the weight without modifications.

“That’s been one of the roughest parts right there,” Anderson said of the lack of building-wide cooling. He said inmates in most cases were kept cooler than the staff of the administration building, where workers for two weeks shifted their schedules to work in cooler parts of the day.

‘It got up to about 80 degrees, but you could bear it,” Anderson said. “The only complaints were from the employees. I probably complained more than anybody.”

Lawson said he was grateful to Bristol Motor Speedway for loaning large fans used to spray a cooling water mist on race fans.

Anderson and Lawson said plans are for the public to get a look at the new facility in early September after a dedication ceremony.