Jail Committee Seeks Cost Estimates from Architect and Contractor (View Video Here)

January 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

How many beds would be needed if and when a new DeKalb County Jail or Judicial Center is built?

The Jail committee of the DeKalb County Commission met Thursday night and voted 8 to 1 to have the county’s architect and contractor come up with costs projections for a possible 150, 190 or 225 bed facility.

During the meeting, Jim Hart, Jail Consultant and Field Manager of the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) updated the committee on the county’s jail assessment revised study which now recommends up to 272 beds to meet current and future needs.

All members of the jail committee in attendance at the meeting voted in favor of the motion seeking bed count cost options except for Commissioner Greg Matthews, who apparently was not comfortable with at least one of the options.

“I don’t think 150 (beds) is going to cut it,” said Matthews. “I think 272 (beds) might seem a little too much. It seems like an awful lot compared to what it has been for years here and 250 beds is double what we currently have. There’s a big difference between 250 and 272 including the cost”, said Matthews.

Members of the committee in attendance voting in favor of the motion were County Commissioners Jeff Barnes, Daniel Cripps, Tony “Cully” Culwell, Tony Luna, Glynn Merriman, Sabrina Farler, Larry Green, and Beth Pafford.

“We are going to take those (jail bed) options and consult with our architect and contractor to develop an estimated cost on what this would be to give us an idea of what revenue source we would have to acquire to meet our needs,” said County Mayor Matt Adcock.

“We (jail committee) will meet again on February 27 to evaluate the estimated costs of these three jail bed count options as presented by our architect and contractor as well as the admin costs associated with the rest of the proposed judicial center including the sheriff’s department, court rooms, clerks’ offices, storage, etc. We still haven’t put our finger on a good piece of land yet for the facility and so far there are not many viable options,” said County Mayor Adcock.

Hart explained findings of the revised CTAS Jail study.

“An accepted figure is that your jail is crowded when your average daily population exceeds 85% of capacity. If you have a 100-bed jail and it routinely exceeds 85 inmates, you are overcrowded and that has an impact on your ability to classify and separate offenders by their risk and needs and to address when you have surges in the inmate population due to weekend offenders, major roundups, or a backlog in court. You have been trending just above your rating capacity for males and females,” said Hart.

Unlike when the DeKalb Jail Annex was built in 2001, Hart explained that dormitory type facilities like the annex, pose more concerns today.

“Twenty years ago, a lot of dormitory space in jails were built for housing low risk misdemeanor offenders. Today we have a high number of pre-trial felons in custody and more violent offenders as well as individuals with mental illnesses and substance use disorders. We see a whole different dynamic of inmate populations today so open bay dormitory style housing becomes very problematic today,” said Hart.

“Now for every inmate who comes into custody, we should be doing a formal classification assessment which identifies specific risk and needs of that individual offender such as whether he or she is an escape risk, violent person, sexual predator, or a danger or threat to our facility”.

“An inmate’s needs must also be considered such as their mental health, whether they are elderly, in advanced stages of pregnancy, or other reasons that they can’t be in the general population. We try to house them according to their risks and needs to ensure the safety and security of everyone,” said Hart.

Hart further explained how the CTAS assessment arrived at the 272-bed recommendation for DeKalb County.

“How I do a calculation to do a projection for about 20 years out is I look at your actual census data and the incarceration rate based on a 10-year period of combining data as to how many people were incarcerated during that time. I also include a peaking factor in which I take the three highest population counts each month over a 10-year period and divide the average daily population into that to get the peaking factor. I also include a 20.1% projected surge in inmate population with construction of a new jail as has been the case with other new jails we have seen”.

Taking into account these factors (potential base average daily population forecast, potential surge percentage, peaking factor, and classification factor), Hart said the study shows total estimated space requirements for DeKalb County are projected to be 67 beds for female inmates and 205 for males by the year 2043 totaling 272 beds.

Its been five 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 across the mid-state. And while the county continues to ponder what and where to build in terms of a new jail or judicial center, the costs to the county of sending these inmates off to other places continues to rise.

During Thursday night’s meeting, Sheriff Patrick Ray updated members of the jail committee on where these prisoners are going and how much it is costing to keep them there.

As of Thursday, January 25, Sheriff Ray said that the DeKalb County Jail held a total of 51 men but no women and  seven men and eleven women were being housed elsewhere including the Robertson, White, Lincoln,  Smith, and Warren County jails.

The breakdown is as follows:

*5 DeKalb County male prisoners housed in the Robertson County Jail- $55.40 per day per prisoner

*2 female prisoners in the White County Jail-$50 per day per prisoner

*2 female prisoners in the Smith County Jail-$44 per day per prisoner

*2 female prisoners in the Lincoln County Jail-$0

*1 male and 4 female prisoners in the Warren County Jail-$41.00 per day per prisoner

*1 male prisoner in DeBerry-$0

“We have paid out $45,417 (75.69%) of funds budgeted for this expense and have not received bills from some counties yet. We have also started using ankle monitors for some inmates and the cost is around $7.00 per day- We currently have one female prisoner on an ankle monitor”, said Sheriff Ray.

January 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Because of the wintry weather, its been two weeks since the DCHS Tigers and Lady Tigers last saw action but tonight (Friday, January 26) regular season play resumes for them at Sparta against White County.

https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk/

The girls game tips off at 6 p.m. followed by the boys contest and WJLE will broadcast both LIVE with the Voice of the Tigers and Lady Tigers John Pryor.

In the last meeting on January 5, the Tigers lost to the Warriors in Smithville 61 to 38 while the Lady Tigers suffered an 80 to 49 loss to White County.

The Tigers are now 10-10 on the season and 1-2 in the district. The Lady Tigers own a record of 9-11 overall and 0-3 in district play. The Warriorettes are 21-2 overall and 4-1 in the district. The Warriors are 8-9 on the season and 3-2 in district play.

Listen for WJLE’s Tiger Talk program at 5:40 p.m. featuring Tiger and Lady Tiger Coaches Joey Agee and Brandy Ally with players Alex Antoniak, Conner Close, Tess Barton, and Avery Agee.

January 25, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

An Alexandria businessman has been arrested and charged with four counts of forgery.

50-year-old Stein Edward Prichard of Brush Creek Road, Brush Creek, manager of Prichard’s Foods, is under a bond of $26,000 and he will make his first appearance in General Sessions Court on February 8.

Sheriff Patrick Ray said that Prichard is accused of having altered checks of two store customers, changing the actual amounts to much higher amounts.

“People would come into the store and buy goods and would write a check and then he allegedly would change the amount of the check and run it through the bank and used the proceeds for his benefit,” said Sheriff Ray.

“We got a report at the sheriff’s department on December 5 about an altered check and found it was altered at Prichard’s Foods. We started an investigation with assistance of the District Attorney’s office. They assigned an investigator to help us. A total of four subpoenas were issued on business records of the store. We found one victim had three altered checks while there was one altered check on another victim That’s what the investigation revealed,” said Sheriff Ray.

The four forgery counts allege as follows:

“On or about March 30, 2023 Prichard forged a personal check belonging to a victim by altering the amount from $247.60 to $3,247.60 with intent to defraud the victim.”

“On or about April 11, 2023 Prichard forged a personal check belonging to a victim by altering the amount from $135.36 to $935.36 with intent to defraud the victim”

“On or about April 12, 2023, Prichard forged a personal check belonging to a victim by altering the amount from $199.26 to $5,199.26”

“ On or about December 2, 2023, Prichard forged a personal check belonging to a victim by altering the amount from $205.69 to $6,205.69”

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