February 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Although it wasn’t on the agenda, talk of a new jail or judicial center was on the minds of two local residents who addressed the county commission during the public comments period of Monday night’s regular monthly meeting.
Steven Cantrell and Jerry Adcock each spoke out on the issue and had their own ideas on how to deal with it.
Cantrell implored the county to address only jail needs and requirements and to forego any consideration of a judicial center.
“As a county taxpayer I am very concerned as I watch the county discuss and evaluate its jail requirements which appear to have morphed from a county jail into a justice center,” said Cantrell. “What we need is a county jail facility to address the growing needs of the county. That’s it. We have a courthouse. We don’t need the taxpayers to fund a new justice center as part of a new jail. We need to ensure this body and its committees stay focused on that. What we need versus nice to have. But that’s not all. Upon completion of the new jail, we can update and downsize the sheriff’s building to only administrative spaces and new holding cells for prisoners scheduled for court. Prisoners scheduled for court could be brought by bus to the new jail in the morning and then returned in the evening. The sheriff’s deputies could bring the prisoners from their temporary holding cells across the street for their court dates and return them to their holding cells until taken back to the jail with the other prisoners,” Cantrell continued.
“We need to ensure this body remains focused on what the county needs and the taxpayers can afford. We do not need to spend the taxpayers’ dollars for a nice to have justice center. These are our tax dollars, yours and mine. We have entrusted this elected body with to include on those tax dollars any future bond required. We don’t need perfect. We need a county jail that meets the state’s legal standards for housing both a growing and full range of prisoners. Again, a jail based on requirements, not a justice center,” added Cantrell.
A resident and property owner, Cantrell introduced himself to the commission prior to his comments on the jail issue and provided information about his background.
“I currently reside in the third district, but I will soon be in the fifth district. Although I just permanently moved here January 14, my parents were born and raised here as were their parents and even further back. I have been a property owner since 2008 in the county and city. That’s land, house, and store buildings. I am a retired military officer as was my father, Waniford Cantrell before me and I am a retired senior government civilian. In both of these positions, like this body, I have dealt with budgets and safeguarding the taxpayer’s money. My biggest challenge, whether it was buildings or weapon systems, was working with contractors and experts who had the perfect solution above and beyond what we really needed. Part of my job was evaluating future threats based on intelligence to be sure we were adequately addressing our requirements and not overbuilding. That’s how I look at things,” said Cantrell.
Adcock, a resident of the Young Bend community, is a former 5th district county commissioner.
“The county has possession of the veteran’s building which was built around 1955. It could be destroyed, brought down and a jail could be built connected with a new section of the jail (annex) which was built about twenty years ago. That way we would not have to waste a lot of money. It wouldn’t cost as much and we wouldn’t have to look for land. We already have the land. I went to school at Tennessee Tech which is an engineering school, and most of the contractors, engineers, and architects I have ever talked to have said you can build up cheaper than you can build out so we don’t need a lot of land. We could build up there between the school board building and the law office and connect it to the new section of the jail. I’d hate to see something (jail annex) twenty years old put in a can and done away with. That is something we don’t need to do. I just wanted to get this word out to the people of DeKalb County,” said Adcock.
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 is expected to learn tonight (Tuesday, February 27) from the county’s architect and contractor what the costs projections are for a possible 150, 190 or 225 bed facility. The meeting will be at 5 p.m. in the history room of the county complex.
During the last jail committee meeting in January, 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 but there seemed to be little or no support among the committee for a facility with 272 beds.
Even if the jail committee decides on the number of beds for a new jail or judicial center, the county has not yet identified a suitable location to build it.