Sheriff Says Inmate Housing and Medical Costs Over Budget for 2024-25 Fiscal Year

February 27, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

Its been 19 months since the county was forced to cut the certifiable bed capacity of the DeKalb County Jail in half from 102 to 52 and since that time many prisoners have been relocated to other jails. And while the county continues to ponder where to build a new jail, the costs to the county of sending these inmates off to other places continues to rise.

During a jail committee meeting Tuesday night, Sheriff Patrick Ray updated members of the county commission on where these prisoners are going and how much it is costing to keep them there. Expenditures in this report are from July 1, 2024 to February 25, 2025.

According to Sheriff Ray the county is already over budget in the line items for inmate housing and medical/dental costs with still four months left in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The total expenditures just for housing inmates out of the county to date (February 25, 2025) was $213,865.

“We are still housing as of today (February 25) 18 inmates in other counties including Robertson, Smith, Cannon, Putnam, and Bedford. Some of them are females and some are sex offenders. Others are inmates that cannot go into the regular prisoner population because of trouble they have or have had that required that they be moved. Some have a very aggravated charge that keep them from being housed with other inmates,” said Sheriff Ray.

“There has always been $65,000 each year that has been appropriated to the jail to spend on maintenance and alarm fees that we do monthly. Our central heat and air bills are paid out of that money along with interpreter services. Back in December you (county commission) added $100,000 to that fund putting the total for the year at $165,000,” said Sheriff Ray.

“As of today (Tuesday, February 25) we are at $213,865 for inmate housing. If you compare that number to where we were in December the last time I gave you a report on that ($129,304) we have spent $84,560 in just two months on inmate housing along with some ankle monitors with the probation service that gets paid out of that”.

“The expenditures of our everyday maintenance and other things we do also comes out of that money and to date (Tuesday, February 25), we have paid $7,825. Last December it was $3,086 which means we have spent $4, 738 in two months including a total of $3,153 which was for an inmate transportation service. Part of that was used to extradite a prisoner from California to DeKalb County. The D.A.’s office wrote a letter to have the prisoner extradited back”.

“As of today (Tuesday, February 25) we are at $61,766 in the hole (over budget in this line item). That means at the next county commission meeting if you want to we will need to figure how much further we go in the hole or what it will take to get us through March and April.”

Sheriff Ray said costs of inmate medical and dental services also continue to soar.

“We have always been appropriated $100,000 in the line item for medical and dental services. For years we have been under budget in that category but this year we have already paid out $128, 073 and we have a negative balance of $28, 073 in that line item today. I have $192, 432 worth of outstanding medical bills. The company that we deal with for inmate medical does a reduction on the costs. Most of the time across the board we will have to pay 40% of that. They knock off the 60%. Hopefully we are actually at $76,973 but we have other outstanding medical costs that have not yet been billed and we have from today through June 30 (budget year) to go for (additional) medical costs,” said Sheriff Ray.

“When they (other counties) notify us that they have sent one of our inmates to the hospital we have no control over that. For example if we have an inmate get sick in Bedford County then we have to send correctional officers down there to sit with them as long as they are in the hospital and we are responsible for the bill. That drives up cost for overtime and it takes somebody (correctional officer) away from the jail. There is also fuel expense and other costs to take prisoners back and forth to court,” he said.

“A new law took effect July 1, 2024 in that when someone is charged with an aggravated crime of domestic abuse or aggravated assault a condition for bond is that they be on a GPS monitor that the inmates have to pay themselves. That’s probably a $400 set up fee that the inmate will have to pay before they are released. If they can’t pay that $400 then they will have to sit there (jail) until their case is done. We have been very fortunate in that a lot of people (inmates) on this new GPS system have come up with the $400 but if they stop paying it then we have to go pick them back up because they have to be monitored 24/7 with this monitoring service. I also heard another proposed new law is being considered in the state that if approved anyone charged with a highly aggravated offense would have no bond set. Those are things I am having to look at as far as housing inmates to determine how much our jail population grows or shrinks,” said Sheriff Ray.

February 27, 2025
By:

The DeKalb Fire Department came to the rescue of a disabled person during a residential structure fire Wednesday.

Chief Donny Green issued the following statement:

“On Wednesday at approximately 10:55 a.m., the DeKalb County Fire Department was dispatched to a residential fire on Keltonburg Road with a disabled person still inside the home”.

“Firefighters quickly arrived on the scene and found the home filled with smoke and occupants and pets still inside. Firefighters, DeKalb County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel, and DeKalb County Sheriff Department deputies safely removed the disabled occupant from the residence.”

“Firefighters quickly arrived and successfully extinguished the fire and ventilated the home. Fire damage was contained to the laundry room in the floor and wall behind the clothes dryer. It was determined the dryer vent was clogged causing excessive heat to ignite the lint in the vent”.

“EMS personnel evaluated the patient, and the patient refused medical transport. The Keltonburg, Belk, and Main Stations responded to the incident,” said Chief Green.

February 26, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

Where to build a new jail?

Members of the DeKalb County Jail Committee and the County Mayor met Tuesday night with Bob Bass, former Deputy Director of the Tennessee Corrections Institute, who now serves as a county correction partnership consultant.

During the meeting, Bass said he and Committee Chairman Larry Green and County Mayor Matt Adcock toured sites around town Tuesday that might be possible locations for a new jail.

Of the three properties he saw, Bass said the Peggy Hayes property, an undeveloped green site, located near Walmart would be the best choice. Others he looked at were sites on Bright Hill Road owned by Joe Rice and the Steve Colvert family property on Smith Road.

“One site jumped out at me but let me do a disclaimer here. The Tennessee Corrections Institute nor any agency in the state of Tennessee to my knowledge can tell a county commission where they are going to put a jail. You can use my expertise, and I can give you, my opinion. I will always pose questions about if (property) is good for the project but I will not tell you (location) where you are going to put the jail,” said Bass. “In this case the Hayes property checked all the boxes. The entire piece of property I think would be a good choice for the county in that it’s big enough for a one-story facility. It would accommodate parking, an exercise area, expansion and has availability of water, sewer and three phase electricity etc. It checks all the boxes without a negative spot anywhere,” said Bass.

When asked by members of the committee, County Mayor Adcock said the county once had the Hayes property (38 acres) appraised at $1,485,000. “Preliminarily we discussed about eight months to a year ago offering her (Hayes) $2 million for all of it (38 acres) and she rejected that offer,” he said.

A few members of the committee expressed concerns about putting a jail on the Hayes property with it being near a residential neighborhood.

Asked if the current jail location would be suitable for a rebuild or expansion, Bass said he would not recommend it.

“We have talked about this a lot and you have heard from Bell Construction, the architects and from our standpoint. If you start any construction on the facilities you have now you will have to submit those plans, and you’ll have to bring the building you have up to codes,” said Bass. “Currently your building does not meet codes. You would have to spend a lot of money just to get that facility to meet codes and you would probably not net any beds out of it. In fact, you would probably lose beds going from 51 now to around 30 beds. I just don’t see it and its going to be more expensive to build. As you heard from Rick Bruin of Bell Construction it was like $4.5 million to $5 million more to try doing something with that site. I haven’t been happy with that site all along,” said Bass. “I just don’t think its there and I don’t think you are going to be able to get future growth out of it. When you build these jails, you have to think about the future. You need to select a site that has availability to grow because it is going to grow. I wish crime would stop but we know its not going to,” Bass continued. “And even if the county could acquire an empty lot next to the jail (Kirby property), Bass said there would still be no room for future expansion. “It’s going to box you in and you are not going to have room to grow. Depending on how many beds you wanted I suspect that (new jail on current site) would be a stacked jail. That means more staff. If you build multi levels that’s staff on the first floor, staff on the second floor, third, and fourth floors. Its really staff intensive. You’d build a radius design with a central control where you can look out and see all the inmates. Its not a linear jail but its laid out linear. You would have a mezzanine. It’s a second story but its inside with a staircase going up to it. I don’t see that (being built) downtown. Not to mention its going to tie up traffic downtown. You’ll have to shut down a street. You don’t have a layout yard and the backside of that property slopes off so I don’t know how much of it you could actually use. I think you need to be looking at property that you can take care of in the future,” explained Bass.

Committee members also discussed an available site on Allen’s Ferry Road behind Bizzy Mart with the biggest drawback they said being that the property is not currently in the city limits and not served by sewer. The Smithville mayor and aldermen have said they would not consider annexing this site for a jail.

The Smithville Elementary School property was also discussed as an option but some committee members pointed out that the school board still owns the site and that even if the county could acquire it the property would not be available on which to build a jail, possibly for up to four years, until the new school is finished all while the county’s costs for housing and transporting inmates to other county jails continues to soar. Others mentioned that putting a jail on this site might also raise public concerns in that it too would be near homes and a child daycare facility.

Chairman Green asked Bass at what point the county needs to formally hire an architect and builder.

“That’s up to your discretion but before you start concept development they need to be in place. I have never been for designing a jail without a piece of property. I have worked with counties who have done that a couple of times and there are always issues. It’s the unforeseen. If you get the architect and builder in place they can help you find the unforeseen and you can avoid them. Sometimes things pop up with a million-dollar price tag. Whatever property you pick you have to do the geos, the economic development study as far as the ecology is concerned, core drilling, site evaluation, etc. All those things have to be done by law. They (architect and builder) can help you get that done. I think you need to execute the contract. In this case you have done a lot of hard work. Your master plan is practically done. The key things you are missing are the site and the cost but we can’t get to that cost figure without having a concept development and we can’t determine that by just looking at renderings.  A dormitory jail is a lot cheaper but that’s not how you set up prisoner classification. He (sheriff) needs two person cells so how many of those do we need,” asked Bass.

Committee member Tom Chandler made a motion that the real estate agent for the Hayes property be contacted to inquire about an updated price for the entire 38-acre site or at least an 18-acre section with an easement to Highway 70. Although the vote on Chandler’s motion was 7 to 6 in favor it failed to get the eight votes needed for passage.

Meanwhile Bass said he plans to take the county mayor and county commissioners together on trips to at least three other county jails for them to view recent jail projects.  “I have arranged for three jail tours at Smith County, Rhea County, and Monroe County. I picked these three because they are more recent to show you what is being done with new construction techniques,” said Bass.

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