Jail Expansion Breaks Ground

Sullivan sheriff says he’s pleased bonds used to pay for first phase of expansion

After breaking ground on a $6.85 million jail expansion project Tuesday, Sullivan County Sheriff Wayne Anderson said he hopes the County Commission will continue looking for ways to fund future jail expansion needs.

But Anderson said is pleased that the commission used bond proceeds to fund the first phase of the project, which came in more than $800,000 higher than early cost estimates. The expansion is needed to relieve long-term overcrowding at the current facility.

The site of the groundbreaking Tuesday was a graveled and muddy area next to the existing jail that will house a new administrative building by September. A new inmate wing and other renovations of the existing structure are to completed by April of 2001.

“We hope that while this is being constructed, the (commission’s) Building Committee will move on with Phase 2 before this is completed,” Anderson said after the groundbreaking.

Long-range plans call for the jail to be expanded in four phases and eventually to be certified to house 1,056 inmates.

“Today we have 464 inmates, and the capacity is 317,” Anderson said, adding that aside from capacity problems, which can lead to costly lawsuits, the jail often is unable to separate inmates charged with misdemeanors from those accused of more serious felonies.

“That can also lead to lawsuits,” Anderson said.

When complete, the first phase will increase the jail’s certified inmate space from 317 to 502, a number that includes an increase in female inmate spaces from 64 to 92.

Earlier this year, Crossley Construction of Knoxville submitted the low bid of $6.76 million for the project’s first phase. But county officials cut $130,000 from the project by making changes in things like brands of electrical and mechanical components, which would not affect operation of the building.

However, another $214,000 to cover recent architectural fees was added back to the project.

Planning for the project began in 1994, the year that Republican Gil Hodges was elected county executive and Democrat Keith Carr was reelected to his second full term.

Hodges remains as county executive, but Republican Anderson narrowly beat Carr in the 1998 election.

Hodges, who participated in the groundbreaking, said he hopes the commission will plan ahead for future jail expansion phases, but he said he would like to see school expansion and renovation projects completed before further jail expansions.

The second phase, which has not been funded by the commission, would add space for another 142 inmates, as well as a medical wing, a new intake area and a holding area for up to 62 people. Claude Smith, county construction oversight manager, said the holding area and medical wing spaces are not included in the overall inmate counts.

The third and fourth phases would be additional inmate wings or “pods” that Anderson said would increase the jail capacity to more than 1,000, which is the size of some prisons. The sheriff added prison might be a more appropriate name for the operation since Tennessee prisoners are still housed in the county jail because there is no room in state prisons.

Of the 464 in the jail Tuesday afternoon, Anderson said 119 were state prisoners. The state reimburses the county $24 per inmate per day for the prisoners, but Anderson earlier this year said the actual cost is $24.08 plus the unknown liability costs of potential lawsuits from inmates.

The county has declined to enter in a contract with the state to accept inmates, but still must take them. Anderson said his staff works each week to find other county jails and state prisons willing to take inmates housed in Blountville, but he, Carr and County Attorney Dan Street have been unsuccessful in stemming the tide of state inmates into the county jail.