July 23, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
After touring the sheriff’s department and jail Monday, members of the DeKalb County Grand Jury issued a statement on “a lack of correctional officer to prisoner ratio” there.
The Grand Jury’s report states that” the DeKalb County Grand Jury met on July 22, 2019. We toured the jail and found it satisfactory other than lack of correctional officer to prisoner ratio. The sheriff has asked for additional funds to hire needed help but was denied.”
On an unrelated matter, the Grand Jury stated that “ DeKalb County Clerk Jimmy Poss came and discussed county surety bonds with us. We heard from various law enforcement agencies regarding different criminal issues,” the report concluded.
During a budget committee meeting of the county commission in March, Sheriff Patrick Ray asked that funds be included in the new budget (2019-20) for five new positions including one extra court officer, two extra shift supervisor positions for the sheriff’s department operation, and two extra shift supervisors for the jail. That proposal was later determined to be too costly and the committee voted 3 to 2 to reject it.
In May, the budget committee reached a compromise with the sheriff in providing more manpower to meet the demands of courtroom security and other needs
The committee voted to fund in the 2019-20 budget two new officer positions solely from a proposed new litigation tax through the General Sessions Court budget. One other new deputy position will be created and funded by the county through the sheriff’s department budget. And while no new positions will be added to the jail budget, the sheriff plans to promote two existing correctional officers to the rank of corporal as jail supervisors. Each one will get a $2,000 increase in pay under the existing wage scale for sheriff’s department employees for a total of $4,000. The move keeps the sheriff’s department compliant with standards for around the clock jail supervision under standards of the Tennessee Corrections Institute.
The county commission Monday night adopted the new 2019-20 consolidated budget for all county departments and a 29 cent property tax increase to help fund it.