TCI votes to Continue DeKalb County Jail Certification Under Plan of Action

December 5, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The Tennessee Corrections Institute Board of Control met Wednesday, December 4 in Nashville and voted to continue certification of the DeKalb County Jail for another year under a plan of action upon the recommendation of TCI Deputy Director Bob Bass. The facility currently has 52 certifiable beds for male inmates.

County Mayor Matt Adcock, Sheriff Patrick Ray, and Jail Committee Chairman Larry Green attended the TCI Board meeting.

As of today (Thursday, December 5) Sheriff Ray said the DeKalb County Jail has 50 inmates and 30 others from DeKalb County are in other jails where the county pays a daily rate to house them. The number of inmates fluctuates regularly.

A “plan of action” allows a facility to maintain a certified status after failing to meet all minimum standards while demonstrating to the TCI Board of Control that the facility is making measurable progress over a period of time (months or years) to rectify deficiencies found during inspection.

Since 2019 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, November 5 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%.

A month ago the jail committee of the county commission met 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.

Bass, who also attended the jail committee meeting last month, 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.

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

All fourteen members of the county commission make up the jail committee and all were present for the jail committee meeting last month 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 which it did on Monday night, December 2 voting 9 to 0 to explore the jail only option. Members Tom Chandler, Sabrina Farler, Greg Matthews, Mathias Anderson, and Susannah Cripps were absent.

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.

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