Committee Drops Plan for Judicial Center and Opts for Jail Only to Avoid Jail Decertification

November 7, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Facing possible jail decertification, the jail committee of the county commission Thursday night met for the first time in months to re-organize and voted unanimously to drop the judicial center concept for now and pursue construction of only a jail. The committee has not yet settled on the location for such new jail construction.

Commissioner Larry Green was named the new chairman of the Jail Committee. Commissioner Mathias Anderson was elected Vice Chair and Commissioner Beth Pafford is the committee’s secretary.

For months, DeKalb County has been under a plan of action with the Tennessee Corrections Institute to  keep the jail certified as it works toward a solution with some type of building program. In the election on Tuesday, the voters of DeKalb County rejected in a referendum issuance of general obligation bonds for construction of a 190-bed judicial center/jail in an amount not to exceed $65 million by a margin of 85% to 15%.

With that plan having been defeated by the voters, Chairman Green said it was time for the committee to reach a compromise with a new plan that would satisfy the public and TCI.

“I think we came up with a plan we thought was a good plan and we put the costs to it and the people of the county who hired us to do the work voted 85% against it. I don’t know how you convince that many people to flip their vote to be able to support this, but we have to come up with some compromise to satisfy TCI and get what they need for us to be state certified and at the same time satisfy our taxpayers,” said Green.

Bob Bass, Deputy Director of the Tennessee Corrections Institute, who also attended the jail committee meeting Thursday night, made it clear that unless the county could agree to focus on solving the jail problems, he could not recommend to the TCI board that the DeKalb County Jail continue to be certified.

“I’m here to report back to our board what DeKalb County is going to do. That is my focus tonight. If I leave here tonight and you can’t tell me you are building a jail you are not going to be certified,” said Bass.

“In September we (TCI) moved our decision on whether you should be certified or not based on the outcome of this (referendum) vote. I take it personal. Its my job to see that you retain this certification, and I am going to do everything I can to help you do that. Our next step is for you to decide and tell me tonight that this committee is going to look at jail construction. The voters said no to a criminal justice center, but they didn’t say you couldn’t do the jail. That’s the only commitment you have to make. I will then reshape your plan of action, get signatures from the sheriff and county mayor, and then I will go in front of the TCI board on December 4 and they will agree with me. Its like a restart. The criminal justice center is off the table. The people have spoken. You don’t have the money for that. Lets do what we can afford,” said Bass.

Going forward Bass said TCI will work with the county in planning and developing a new jail.

“Studies have been done. We know (jail construction) downtown would be more expensive. I know that property (existing location) is not suitable. I wish I had been here in this capacity (TCI deputy director) when you did what you did last time (dormitory style jail annex) because I would have advised against it. Today that jail will not meet TCI standards and its not going to. It’s never going to make it,” he said.

Bass recommended building at least a 150-bed jail with one arraignment court room.

“When you start designing this jail, I am going to recommend right off the bat that you put in an arraignment room. I know it won’t be a criminal justice center. If you put in a small courtroom inmates could be brought right from the cell to there (courtroom). It will help with security and take some of the cost away of transporting them. It may be another year and a half before you get to a decision-making process, but we will help you through that process over the next several months and get it drilled down to where we do bring in an architect and construction manager and then talk about property. We know going in that when we sit down with an architect we are probably talking about 150 beds. Then we will have to do programming. How big does the kitchen and medical have to be? How many cells do you want for behavioral problem inmates and then we will come up with a design and make it staff friendly. Staffing is going to be very expensive and recurring. That cost won’t go away. When we get those concept documents then that’s when we will hand it over to the construction manager and have him run some numbers on this and then we put it out for bids. It could be 10 or 15% less than what the construction manager determines,” said Bass.

Although it wasn’t part of the motion, Commissioner Tony Luna said he would like to see a design for 120 beds with initial shell space for 30 additional beds and future plans (shell space) for 50 more beds “way down the road” as a cost saving move.

“The jail is the problem we have to deal with through TCI right now so if we can build a jail and we find we have extra money we could do courtrooms before we get too far in this process but to keep the jail certified we have to go forward with the jail,” said Chairman Green.

All fourteen members of the county commission make up the jail committee and all were present except for Commissioner Susannah Cripps. Since it was only a committee meeting, the action amounted to only a recommendation for the full county commission to again act on at a later date.

Bass, who is soon retiring from his position as TCI Deputy Director, will remain as a consultant and he plans to meet with the jail committee again on January 6 to give advice on the next step in this process.

November 7, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The 30th Annual DeKalb County Angel Tree Project signups are today (Thursday, November, 7th). This is the only day and there are NO EXCEPTIONS. Application time is from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm at the First Baptist Church Life Enrichment Center under the carport.

Applicants must be DeKalb County residents. Children from birth to no older than age 12 by December 25, 2024 are eligible. You must bring photo identification and a bill with the correct current DeKalb County address of the person applying. You must also provide social security cards and birth certificates (Mother’s copy is okay) for all children listed on the application. Guardian paperwork for temporarily placed children is acceptable. Documents are returned to the applicant, only the application is kept. Please make sure you fill out the application as completely and accurately as possible.

If an applicant cannot appear in person, their application can be submitted by someone else as long as all of the required information and documentation is presented. Come prepared with all of the necessary documentation to complete your application between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm on Thursday, November 7th. This is the only day that applications will be available and accepted. NO EXCEPTIONS. For additional information please contact Laura Stone (text only please) at 615-464-7135. Do not contact the church, we are only using their facility. Remember you only have Thursday, November 7th to complete and turn in your application.

November 7, 2024
By: Bill Conger

DeKalb West School has named the Students of the Month for October. Congratulations are in order for Krishva Patel, PreK; Keegan Walter, Kindergarten, Laikynn Sparks, 1st, Kaleb Grabovac, 2nd, Miguel Ramirez, 3rd, Ty Vickers, 4th, Lilly Dunaway, 5th, Caison Grisham, 6th, Bentley Wright, 7th, and Yesica Gonzalez, 8th.

DWS also chose its Teacher of the Month Ashley Nokes, who is in her second year teaching 1st grade at the school and Employee of the Month Bill Conger, DWS School Counselor since 2007.

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