May 22, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Jail or Judicial Center? Where does the county go from here?
After a meeting that lasted more than two hours Monday night, the jail committee of the county commission failed to reach a consensus on what its next step will be moving forward on jail or judicial center construction. No action was taken. Several people showed up for the meeting and a few gave their opinions about the jail issue during the public comment period. Some were there to complain about the condition of county roads.
Although the commission settled on construction of a judicial center last November and construction options and costs estimates have since been provided by architects and construction managers for the project, some members of the commission now seem to have second thoughts on the judicial center option. Last week the budget committee, for the second consecutive week, voted to reject making a recommendation to the county commission that an initial and detailed bond resolution be adopted not to exceed $65 million to fund a judicial center with housing for 190 inmates at a tax levy to be determined prior to passage of the 2024-25 budget.
County Mayor Matt Adcock said he considered canceling Monday night’s jail committee meeting but decided to go ahead with it to take advantage of the opportunity to update the public on the project and the issues facing the county regarding the jail.
He also asked Sheriff Patrick Ray to update the jail committee on the number of inmates housed in the jail as well as the count and cost of those from DeKalb County being held in other counties. Since last fall, those costs have grown to almost $100,000 according to Sheriff Ray.
“We have a total of 43 inmates in jail today (Monday). That’s 41 men and 2 women. Last week we sent quite a few inmates to the state pen. That’s why our numbers are a little bit down this month. We are housing 9 men and 11 women in other jails. We have 5 females and 1 male in Robertson County that we are paying to house at $55.40 per day. In the White County jail we have 3 females at $55 per day. There is 1 female in Smith County for $44 per day. One female and 1 male in the Warren County jail at $41 per day. We have 2 males and 1 female in the Franklin County jail. We have not received that bill yet. There is 1 female in Cannon County but we have not received a bill yet. We have 2 females in Overton County but we have not yet received a bill. There is also 1 male in Deberry, which is a state prison for medical needs inmates. We also have 1 female in the Tennessee Women’s Prison. She was pregnant upon coming to the jail so we sent her there because we cannot care for her here. From about August 2023 is when TCI came and reduced our bed count down from 102 to 52 inmates. We have paid out $97,640 as of today (Monday). We have saved some money in our budget from meals, where our population has been down. We have tried to keep our costs down in the jail as far as mats and blankets and things like that which we usually buy to offset some of the cost of housing female inmates. We should be at 88.56% of our budget in the jail but we are at 84.52%. The major expense is housing of the inmates and we are under budget everywhere else but there. Hopefully, we can come out of this budget year without spending a whole lot on inmate housing in other counties but that will not happen next year because this year our expenses for housing inmates elsewhere went from September, 2023 to the present. Next year our costs will be from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 so we will definitely go over budget,” he said.
After Sheriff Ray’s report, County Mayor Adcock gave an update on the county’s moves since first being informed by the Tennessee Corrections Institute five years ago that it would have to develop a plan of action on the jail.
“TCI contacted us and said we had to get under a plan of action to prevent the jail from being decertified due to the conditions of the jail. Those conditions were everything from ceiling heights to sprinkler systems to not enough adequate natural light into the cells and many other regulations. They shut down 50 of our beds (last August). We had 102 beds and now have 52 beds. We have tried to get all the female inmates out of the county. After being put on a plan of action that was approved by TCI our jail committee met in February 2023 and began discussing the pros and cons of jails and justice centers. Our first course of action was trying to manipulate the building (existing jail) to keep using it but in conversations with TCI they said there was no way to do that to house inmates here,” said County Mayor Adcock. “We looked at building on the back portion of the (existing) jail to make an extension back there. We thought that was an easy fix to build what we needed that would be adequate. But there is a natural waterway and flood zone that runs along the back side of that parking lot and we were told that nothing could be built over that. We then looked at building off to the left (existing site) but there wasn’t a whole lot of room there. We did come up with a scenario in which we could build off to the side and then tear down the old portion and build the sheriff’s office there. One issue with that scenario was the building would be on the property line of another property owner, which I have heard is now willing to sell for $700,000 for the 0.2 acres they own,” Mayor Adcock explained.
“In construction (existing site), that would be a four-story building but the construction management service representative told me he wasn’t comfortable with this option because a portion of the public square would have to be shut down for up to two years and a crane would be very close to other buildings in town which is very dangerous so protective measures would be needed,” he said.
“If we had to shut down a portion of the public square, based on the assessment done for building a new facility on the current site, there could be no Jamboree and a disruption for businesses around the courthouse for up to two years, “said Commissioner Tom Chandler. “Maybe its not for the full two years but if that assessment is accurate, we had better stop and think really hard about what that means,” he said.
Commissioner Tony Luna added that any business disruption due to construction downtown for two years could have an adverse effect on local tax collections.
“If you look at your local option sales tax, a lot of those tax dollars are coming from the downtown square businesses and we don’t need to interrupt that because it affects the budget for the schools and everything else,” said Commissioner Luna.
As to why the jail committee opted to proceed with plans for building a judicial center rather than a jail, it came down to estimated costs over the long term according to County Mayor Adcock.
“I believe one of the reasons the commissioners talked about doing a justice center rather than a jail was the price tag. The initial cost of the justice center was more than a jail. However, when you look at a 30-year bond period, what expenses would we acquire over that 30-year period,” asked County Mayor Adcock.
“If we build a jail on another site, we will have to buy a bus, which is over $100,000, and bear the costs of fuel, maintenance of vehicles, officers, the person driving the bus, and the transport officer salaries, which are all recurring expenditures. By the time we added all that up, the estimate of the jail only project was more costly over 30 years than a judicial center. There is also potentially more liability with a jail at another site in that we would have to bus inmates back and forth to the courthouse and be at risk if inmates were injured. We also have the same liability issues at the existing site. If a prisoner were to be run over or shot while being escorted across the street, we would be liable. Taking all those issues into consideration, the judicial center looked like the better project and according to the architects and construction managers it would cost almost $51 million to build a 190-bed facility on a new site or $56 million on the existing property,” said County Mayor Adcock.
Commissioner Mathias Anderson said he is doing some research on options and cost comparisons and will present his findings to the commission when the study is complete.
However, Anderson shared with the jail committee some of his early findings as to cost estimates of transporting prisoners back and forth from a new jail off site to the courthouse over a 30-year span.
“What caught me off guard was the price difference between the two facilities (jail and judicial center). The justification at the time was transporting inmates back and forth to court. I did some digging, looked at some regulations, and reached out to people trying to get an idea of what is involved in transporting inmates. Looking at how many deputies would be needed on court transport dates. We would actually need four, two per bus and we would need two buses because male and female prisoners cannot be on the same bus. Based on these and other assumptions I have taken into consideration, the transportation costs without buying buses or calculating fuel and maintenance would be $8.8 million over the course of 30 years,” said Commissioner Anderson.
While options for up to three or four courtrooms have previously been considered for a judicial center, County Mayor Adcock said the project could be built with only one or two courtrooms. And the existing courthouse would still be used for all but one or two offices that now occupy it.
“A judicial center is essentially a jail with courtrooms added on. Its not a new courthouse or fancy new building. A lot of people were worried about the existing courthouse. All those offices would stay except for one. Right now, the election commission, veterans’ office, county mayor’s office, Recovery Court, Tennessee Highway Patrol office and others in the courthouse today would remain there even if we built a judicial center. The only office affected would be the Circuit Court Clerk which would go to the judicial center. The Chancery court could also go to the judicial center, or it could be kept at the courthouse,” said County Mayor Adcock.
Does a jail have to be certified?
According to County Mayor Adcock, the jail doesn’t necessarily have to meet state certification to operate but the county would be ill advised to let that happen because of the potential increased liability.
“What happens if our jail should be decertified. Does that mean the state is going to come and lock the doors? Absolutely not,” explained County Mayor Adcock. If our facility is decertified, we could bring all our prisoners back (from other counties)) and house them here. However, if someone (inmate) is injured and they have an attorney, they can come into court and allege our decertified jail is cruel and unusual punishment,” said Adcock. That is what happened to a county in east Tennessee according to Adcock based on his reading of a Knoxville News Sentinel story in which a court imposed $5,000 a day fines on that county until a facility was built.
Still, some commissioners like Myron Rhody are not sold on the idea of a judicial center.
“I am not going to be for a criminal justice center or building out in the county,” said Commissioner Rhody. “I am going to be for putting about 150 beds in our current location and using our courthouse and the jail annex because it is the place where we intake prisoners. We take then in through the sally port. We do the booking and fingerprinting, and we have 40 beds already there that I can’t see walking away from and if the natural lighting and overcrowding is the biggest problem we have then we need to work on the lighting because if we build a facility that will take care of the overcrowding,” said Rhody.
County Mayor Adcock said building either a new jail or judicial center on the existing site, according to the architects and construction managers would be a tight fit and would need up to three or four floors.
“If we built on the existing site, it would be a four-story building right on the property line and it would go straight up vertically four stories. Out beside of it would be the administration building which would be the sheriff’s office and above that could be the courts. They would come in and construct the new jail and if they could house prisoners during construction, they would leave them in here (existing jail) and then move them to the new jail once completed, tear down the other building and rebuild the sheriff’s office there. If you wanted courtrooms they could be built on top of the sheriff’s office. There would be no parking or impound lot and no room for future expansion. They would also have to build a retaining wall on one side to prevent erosion into the waterway behind it and build it in such a way to keep it out of the flood zone and relocate utilities twice,” said County Mayor Adcock.
Commissioner Beth Pafford said she preferred the jail option but with fewer than 190 beds and space for inmate rehabilitation programs.
“I for one would like to see what a jail for maybe 120 or 150 beds would look like,” said Pafford. “I think 190 beds is too many. In looking at the (CTAS Jail Assessment) report (compiled by Jim Hart, Jail Consultant and Field Manager of the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS), a majority of the inmates are on pre-trial motions who have not even been to court yet. But the big thing that jumped out to me is that 70.98% of the inmates there are staying between one and seven days and more than three quarters of the inmates are staying two weeks or less. I am not for building a jail to make money or house other (county) inmates. We will take care of our people, but we also need to make sure we have program space in the new jail. There are no programs going on there to help rehab our inmates. They (CTAS Study) say our ultimate goal is to reduce the jail population and to have programs to help do that,” said Commissioner Pafford.
Commissioner Greg Matthews said building a facility with fewer than 190 beds is short sighted.
“We have completely gone away from all the numbers of inmates we had prior to COVID and that makes no sense to me. Before that the sheriff was averaging about 180 inmates but now we’re talking about building a 150-bed jail. We are at lower numbers now but sooner or later, judges are going to start sending people back to jail. Classes for inmates are wonderful but if a person doesn’t want to change you are not going to make them change. I think we are taking a big step backward if we build just a 150-bed jail when the numbers prior to COVID showed about 180 in the jail average daily count,” said Commissioner Matthews.
According to Commissioner Pafford, numbers from the CTAS jail assessment report from 2012-19 show that the median average daily inmate population prior to COVID was actually 98. In 2020 during COVID the count went down to 48.
Later, Sheriff Ray advised against the county building a jail with too few beds.
“If you are looking at a 120-bed facility, we will have to start another plan of action with TCI once we move into it,” said Sheriff Ray. It will never hold the population that should be in there. That’s why you (jail committee) decided on building a 190-bed facility”.
Since TCI cut the number of certifiable beds at the jail from 102 to 52 last fall, Sheriff Ray said judges have been working with him to keep the inmate population down due to lack of space but that would mostly like change when a new jail is completed.
County Mayor Adcock explained how the jail committee arrived at building a facility for 190 beds.
“We were originally considering 125 to 150 beds but CTAS did a jail assessment study and recommended us building for 272 beds (for future growth) but we determined that 272 beds were way too many. So we met kind of in the middle between 125 and 272 at 190,” said County Mayor Adcock.
Commissioner Glynn Merriman said he still preferred the Judicial Center option as previously voted on by the jail committee.
“We went through all the designs and found that it was going to cost more where the jail is at now than to build a new one and we as a committee voted to build a judicial center. We all voted to do it so what is going on. I want to know,” said Commissioner Merriman.
Commissioner Chandler offered another alternative that he suggested might not make the most financial sense in the long run but could be more acceptable to the public.
“Independent thought outside of this county commission might be for building a justice center, a new facility on a new piece of property,” said Chandler. “But there is an emotional public view image to be dealt with here that suggests some kind of compromise because a lot of people, right or wrong, think the best place for it (jail) is at the existing site. Maybe something we have to do is some combination of that and to me that ends up looking something like building the new jail adjacent to the existing facility and perhaps pushing down the road the justice center part of this completely simply because of public perception issues; and or we could go and look at what it would cost us to turn that annex into a courtroom because it will have no value in my opinion after the new jail is built. The sheriff’s office is already there. It would stay there, and you would have a new jail next to the existing facility,” said Commissioner Chandler.
“That could be a single criminal courtroom while leaving the civil part over at the courthouse,” said Commissioner Sabrina Farler, commenting on Chandler’s Jail Annex courtroom idea.
“I don’t agree with turning the jail annex into a courtroom,” said Commissioner Matthews. “That’s not a good idea. We would still have to walk prisoners across the street to the courthouse because there are other courts including general sessions,” said Matthews.
As for the courthouse, Sheriff Ray said security concerns should be addressed especially if the county opts for building only a new jail.
“Its already been mentioned about the risk of taking prisoners back and forth across the street from the jail to the courthouse. People don’t think about contraband as a risk. If a prisoner gets fentanyl and puts it up a body cavity on the way back to the jail, then we could have an overdose in the jail. That happened in Putnam County a few months ago,” he said.
The courthouse is also overcrowded on court days according to Sheriff Ray.
“There are too many people in the courtrooms. When we have court, you can hardly walk anywhere. The courtrooms are full and people are out in the hallways,” he said. “And there are not enough courtrooms. The state added another judge to our criminal courts last year and now we are having criminal court, general sessions court, juvenile court, chancery court and some of those are on the same day. We often have to use the county commission meeting room downstairs as a courtroom. We are required by law to have two officers or deputies in each courtroom, and somebody has to work the scanner (metal detector). We have worked with county mayors on trying to secure the courthouse by blocking off some entrances, but the state fire marshal will not let us do that. We have barriers up, but anyone can get around those and slip in without anyone knowing. Our courthouse is wide open,” said Sheriff Ray.
Meanwhile County Mayor Adcock clarified a statement he made to the budget committee last week which he said was misinterpreted concerning public opposition on the jail/judicial center issue.
Claiming his statement was taken out of context, Adcock said “I value the public’s opinion greatly. My statement to the budget committee was for them to inform the public of the situation at hand and that was all my statement was supposed to mean. I do value the opinions of our citizens and I do take their concerns very seriously,” said County Mayor Adcock.
During the public comment period, Steven Cantrell urged the committee to pursue a jail only option for construction at the existing jail site.
“I’m still in strong favor of a new county jail verses a justice center,” said Cantrell. “Indeed, information provided to the jail committee in addition to other facts, as I understand them, reveals why this is now the way to go. The facts are that a new jail is required. The current one is too small and does not meet state requirements. The earlier conclusion that a jail could not be built on the current site was wrong. In addition, at that time the adjoining land was not available for purchase. Based on the now erroneous conclusion that the jail would need to be built somewhere else other than across the street from the courthouse, a decision was made to pursue a justice center. There is no state requirement for a justice center,” Cantrell continued.
“At the request of the jail committee, Treanor Architects presented three options for a justice center. One of the options showed a justice center could be built on the current jail complex’s footprint and more importantly, it could be done while maintaining current jail operations through a two phased approach. Phase 1 entailed building the jail only at a cost of approximately $53.3 million. Why pursue phase 2 with the county courthouse across the street? This jail only option reflects a savings of over $10 million compared to the justice center option the jail committee selected at approximately $63.8 million,” explained Cantrell.
“As far as the safety of prisoners going over to the courthouse from the jail, I addressed this at the last jail committee meeting,” Cantrell said. “You can put bollards in place and through procedures, the sheriff’s office could put cars to block the way but none of this has been done to date. If we save approximately $10 million that could be used in other areas but more importantly, we could use the courthouse as a courthouse only so that we don’t run into the issues the sheriff raised and have only the people who are judicially related in the courthouse which reduces the population in the courthouse and allows you to enforce who is coming in and their security”.
“The land next to the current jail, the site of the original Love Cantrell Funeral Home, was not factored in but is now available for purchase if required,” Cantrell continued. “Based on these facts, I respectfully suggest that the county commission through its jail committee ask Treanor Architects for two new jail only options. First, using only the current jail complex’s footprint; and 2nd, with an expanded footprint using the land next door. The investment in time to wait for a jail only proposal is worth a potential savings of approximately $10 million or more and the state is on record that as long as the county is pursuing a resolution in good faith, delays are understood,” said Cantrell.
Ms. Sammie Maxwell, a 30-year auditor for the State Comptroller of the Treasury Office now retired, asked that the county not just consider the jail issue but address deteriorating county roads.
“I think our tax dollars are very important,” said Maxwell. “We have to be extremely careful how we allocate those dollars to our current needs. From my personal knowledge and experience, I feel like we have quite a few areas we can compromise on. For my part, I recommend that we not exceed 170 beds at our new facility, whatever that may be. If we deem we need an addition to the jail we should try to use an existing facility and reconfigure it to include perhaps some courtroom space. We also need to try and manage our savings to do some things that has previously been done for us that is no longer feasible. Our roads in this county are in deplorable condition. We used to have a state fund that was way more generous than it is now. Our gasoline taxes has not kept up with the inflation of road construction. While the state roads have been maintained better than the county roads, our county is going to have to start at some point subsidizing county roads. When it rains so much roads become impassable, this should not be in 2024. We need to consider more things besides the upkeep of the county jail in all of these decisions,” said Maxwell.
Jerry Adcock complained about the jail committee meeting so many times with pay in recent months without coming to a resolution of the jail situation and he took issue with the argument that cranes on a downtown construction site would force a partial shutdown of the public square.
“You are talking about shutting down around the courthouse. If they are building a jail all cranes will be on the back side of the jail not in front of it because that is where the construction is going to be. It (construction) happens every day in Nashville and all big cities”.
Adcock added that the county could take the veterans building site if needed.
“One of the buildings we could consider getting rid of is the veterans building. Do away with that and build whatever you want to in that area and connect it to the new section of the jail. That would be a lot cheaper”.
Adcock also urged the commissioners to keep in mind the low-income taxpayers when it comes time to set the property tax levy for a new facility.
“I was told that if someone lives in the county and has a $160,000 house that property taxes on that house would be about $260 more than what it is right now if you do a 54-cent property tax increase. Think about that little old lady that lives out there making $1,300 per month on social security and other people out there,” said Adcock.
Elisha Orchard admonished the county to not build a jail or judicial center in a residential area.
“One of the biggest concerns for me and my family is the proposed locations for this monstrosity you want to build. One is directly behind where I live, and the other is directly behind where my parents live. We are in a very residential area a little bit off the square and there is nothing around us but families with very small children and I personally do not want inmates living in my back yard. Not only that but my property value would greatly decrease. If you go to a completely new place and break ground it needs to be taken into consideration how that is going to affect our community and the people who are paying the property tax increase to build this thing,” said Orchard.
David Hawk urged the county to do something about roads.
“My problem is with roads. I had a problem with the jail, but I liked what I heard tonight. No need to rush into anything. But the roads are absolutely atrocious. All I hear is I can’t do anything, or I don’t have the money, depending upon who you ask. What can we do. Surely there is a way we can allocate some money to get roads. Holmes Creek Road is impassable. This is 2024 and its really unbelievable. I have driven from Shelbyville on county roads through Bedford, Cannon, Warren, and DeKalb County. All of them had great roads until I got to DeKalb. Its incredible the difference. What are they doing that we can’t do,” asked Hawk.
Darcie Cripps urged the commissioners to take a hard look at fitting a facility on the existing jail site and to be price conscious as they make their decision.
“Any of you that has ever built a house or lived on a budget knows that if you are told its going to cost you ten dollars by the time they are finished its going to cost you fifteen dollars,” said Cripps. “If you don’t budget for that fifteen, what do you do? You break into another fund and try to make it work. We are looking at close to $100 million. If you build a justice center, you still don’t have property and no prospects for property as far as I know. It could be months before you get a probable estimate on what this project is going to cost. To me the most feasible thing to do would be to pursue building on site and then plan for something ten or fifteen years down the road when the school is paid off or the roads are fixed. There are other projects that will have to be done over this 30 year period during which we are paying off $100 million. My kids and grandkids will be paying that off. I ask that you go back to the drawing board and say what can we do on this jail site? Can we buy the property next door? Can we get a better price than $700,000? What can we do to make it work there? I just think it will be a lot cheaper than making my grandkids pay for it,” said Cripps.
Chris Bratcher encouraged the commissioners to do more to promote tourism while working to improve roads in the county.
Bratcher, who resides in DeKalb County, said he served for 24 years as Vice Mayor of Murfreesboro and has held positions on the school board, planning commission, and recreation commission in Rutherford County.
” You have two options here in DeKalb County to make money,” said Bratcher. “You can raise people’s property taxes which they don’t want, or you can have tourism taxes. The roads going down Holmes Creek and to our boat ramps are horrible. You can’t drive them. They are one lane. They are impassable. You have one of the greatest resources in middle Tennessee in Center Hill Lake. If you would advertise Center Hill Lake and create some tourism, you’ll get people coming into your county spending their money, but you won’t be educating their children. You won’t be providing them fire service. Most of them don’t use police service but they fill up their cars and boats. They eat at restaurants and shop at Walmart. They are leaving their money here and we are not providing them any services at all. Fix the roads in this county. I know he (Road Supervisor) points fingers at you (county commission) and you point fingers at him but we are the public and you work for us. We’re pointing the finger at all of you. Fix the roads in this county and you’ll have more revenue coming in. Its all about the money. You can either tax us or you can create a way to get money free,” said Bratcher.
Travis Bryant, who serves as Alexandria Police Chief and Third District Constable, addressed the jail committee with his concerns about the court system.
“I have been in DeKalb County about 20 years now and I have had the honor of working with the sheriff’s department and every law enforcement agency in this county. You go to court any Wednesday or Thursday and its packed. Its standing room only. I don’t work for the sheriff but a lot of days I am up there helping those court officers trying to transport prisoners back and forth. The sheriff does a fantastic job. Law enforcement officers and manpower is in short supply in this county. We have looked at every option to improve that, but it all comes down to money in the end. Whatever you decide to do with this project, jail or justice center, I think either one of them would be a benefit to the county, but you need to look at the court system. Its only a matter of time before that will have to be addressed and the prices won’t get any cheaper the way I see it,” said Bryant.