Another look!
Based somewhat on public reaction during a question-and-answer period at the last jail committee meeting on April 7, the county commission may now be prepared to embrace the concept of building a new jail at the current location on the public square if the price is right. If the cost proves too much, the county may look elsewhere.
During Thursday night’s county commission workshop, Jail Committee Chairman Larry Green said he will ask the full county commission Monday night, April 28 to vote up or down on his proposal of having the architect and construction company that the county has been engaged with in previous discussions to come up with a new plan for building only a jail and sheriff’s department complex up to three levels on the existing site and to remodel the jail annex. As a three-story facility, Commissioner Green said the first floor could be for kitchen and laundry facilities, conference rooms, etc. with the sheriff’s department administration headquartered on the second floor and the third floor for inmate housing. Prisoners would remain housed in the current jail annex while new construction is underway on the east end of the facility near the sally port. After the new jail is completed, work could begin on remodeling the jail annex to bring it up to codes and TCI standards for additional inmate housing. All this, according to Green could possibly be done on property the county already owns with no additional land purchase. How many beds under this plan is still an open question.
Commissioner Green said Treanor Architects and Bell Construction would develop the plan at no cost to the county. Thus far in this process the county has not contracted to pay any architect or construction company. When time comes to build a new jail, the county would have to seek bids for construction.
This renewed effort, Commissioner Green explained would be an attempt to satisfy public concerns about building a jail at another location and the costs while trying to meet standards for state jail certification by the Tennessee Corrections Institute.
“After the last jail meeting, I contacted the architect and the contractor and what I have asked them to do is take a look at our current jail and see if there is anything we can do to bring it up to TCI standards and how many beds we can get out of it and what the cost is,” said Commissioner Green
“The idea is to look at the piece of property we own right beside the jail (east side),” Green continued. “Once you know how many beds we can get out of the current jail (jail annex) then we may be able to cut down on the number of new beds next door. We would still have to build some new things like a new kitchen. You’ll need a conference room to educate the prisoners, have ministers come in and have church services, still behind locked doors. Ministers could come in and talk to them. You could have classes for prisoners and things like that. We would probably still wind up with a three-story jail with all this stuff on the bottom floor, the sheriff’s department administration on the second floor and inmates on the third floor. They could still build in the recreation room and everything we need for it,” said Green.
“They (Treanor and Bell) are going to come up and meet with Sheriff Ray, County Mayor Adcock and myself on May 6. We will go through the jail, and they will go back and come up with hard numbers on exactly what it would cost us downtown,” explained Commissioner Green. “I also talked to (former TCI Deputy Director) Bob Bass and he said TCI would look at that plan to see if it meets their standards and gets us up to the number of beds they feel like we need. What I am looking for, Green said is a minimum number of beds we can build and still satisfy what TCI wants and expandability of what we can do downtown. They (Treanor and Bell) said they could have those numbers back to us probably by the end of May or the first of June to give us exactly what the downtown location would cost, what it would entail, and what we could do there. We won’t have exact costs until we bid it out, but this would give us a good idea of what it would cost. If the numbers come in and we say we are going to do something downtown the next step is to enter into a contract with the architect and at that point you have moved forward with the plan of action we are under with TCI to stay certified. Right now, all we are doing is gathering information. When we get those numbers, we (county commission) could make a decision if we want to stay downtown or go someplace else. At least we can say (to the public) that we have fully investigated the downtown location,” said Green.
Commissioner Sabrina Farler asked if possibly purchasing the half acre lot next to the jail (east side) might be an option for keeping the facility on one level.
“Is that (Green’s proposal) with the option of possibly purchasing the piece of land (next to the jail),” asked Farler.
“That would be buying no land. It’s just based on where we are at now,” replied Green.
“Can we at least have a discussion of how the plan would change if we could purchase that additional half acre lot, a plan B. We need to explore that idea,” said Commissioner Farler.
“If they do a remodel (jail annex) do we have to completely close the jail and ship everybody out until the project is done,” asked Commissioner Tony Luna.
“No what we would do is build the new part with that number of beds knowing that we will pick these other beds up when we remodel the old part (jail annex),” explained Commissioner Green. “We would finish the new part and move prisoners into that and go back and remodel what we have inside (jail annex). If we do anything in the annex portion, we have to build the whole building up to building codes. We have no idea how many beds we could get out of the old part (jail annex). It depends on what we have to do to bring it up to TCI standards,” Green explained.
At the new jail, Green said prisoners could be monitored by cameras from both locations (new jail and jail annex).
“Before (previous plan) we were looking at building a new jail, tearing down the old jail and building courtrooms there. It was four stories to get to 190 beds and a judicial center. This time it’s a jail only. We are not looking to tear it down but to reuse it with bed space maybe for lower classification people and trustees. But it (jail annex) has to be redone anyway because it doesn’t meet TCI standards. The only reason we are keeping it (jail annex) open is because we are under a plan of action with TCI. We still have to rework it inside even after we move people out of it into the new jail,” added Green.
In the meantime, if this plan moves forward with construction underway, some inmates will apparently still have to be sent to jails in other counties to ensure that the current certifiable jail capacity here doesn’t exceed 52 male inmates until the project is completed.
“Given what happened at the public question and answer session about a jail (jail committee meeting on April 7) we have to go down this road (exploring new plan at current site),” said Commissioner Tom Chandler, who has returned to the commission after a recent illness. “We did a version of this before (previous plan) but I think taking this path will give us a clearer picture of what can be done on the current site. It has to be done. There is a piece of the public that is determined that this thing can be built on the current site. We have to either show them that it can or can’t and the cost. In my view there is no moving forward until we answer that question because the public is not going to agree to move forward until we answer that question,” said Commissioner Chandler.
To move forward with Commissioner Green’s proposal, the county commission will need to adopt it with at least eight votes in favor at the Monday night meeting, April 28.
“Are you (county commission) willing to go this route? I don’t see any point in doing this if the commission is not willing to take a look at it,” said Commissioner Green.
“Will it keep us under a plan of action with TCI,” asked Commissioner Luna.
“No. Bob (Bass) said the only thing you are doing with this (new plan) is you are adding to your discussion. He said the only thing that will keep you under a plan of action is to actually move forward with something. We are still in the discussion phase and haven’t moved forward. He said we (TCI) need to know something by October to make their presentation (recommendation) to TCI (for continued jail certification under a plan of action),” said Green
“If we decide this is not going to work, we can purchase property,” said Green “We have two good pieces of property we have looked at (Smith Road and Robinson Road). We could move forward by purchasing a piece of property. There is any number of things we can do but I think we have to get this (downtown option) settled first,” said Commissioner Green.
“So, by mid-June we will know” asked Commissioner Luna.
“Yes” replied Commissioner Green.
Commissioner Greg Matthews argued that core drilling needs to be done on the existing site to determine suitability before any plan moves forward.
“If we are going to try to make a decision on this information (new building plan) we are going to need to have this information (core drilling) also,” said Commissioner Matthews.
Although County Mayor Matt Adcock would like a decision from the county commission on a jail project and adoption of the new budget and tax rate for 2025-26 by June 30, Green said “Under state law we can wait as late as August 31 to set a tax rate and pass a budget,” Green said.
The monthly meeting of the county commission will be Monday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the county complex.
