By JIM BALLOCH
Knoxville News-Sentinel
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knox County Sheriff’s Office has moved all male prisoners from the downtown jail to the detention facility on Maloneyville Road.
“They are all here,” an offi cer at the detention facility said Thursday afternoon.
A sign on the door at the facility said that all female inmates are at the downtown jail in the City County Building.
Knox County prisoners include four defendants - three of whom are male - facing death penalty trials for the slaying and torture of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a case that has received national publicity and for which an accomplice was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years, the maximum allowed for his role.
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of an inmate under a death (penalty trial) notice being kept out at the detention facility,” Knox County Public Defender Mark Stephens said.
“We just found out today,” said Steve Johnson, who represents one of the defendants, Lamaricus Davidson. Other defendants are George Thomas, Latalvis Cobbins and Cobbins’ girlfriend, Vanessa Coleman.
Stephens said he learned this week that the 15-20 maximumsecurity prisoners his offi ce represents had been transferred from the jail to the Maloneyville Road
facility. The 56 female prisoners his offi ce represents, the majority of whom were formerly at the detention facility, are all now in the jail, according to an assistant in his offi ce.
“I went to see a client last Friday, and it was on facility-wide lockdown,” lawyer Mike Whalen said. “When I went back to try to see him on Sunday, I was told there were no longer any males there.”
KCSO officials declined to comment or even confirm the changes. KCSO spokeswoman Martha Dooley cited concerns for safety and security when declining to answer any questions.
County Commissioner Dave Wright, in whose 8th District the detention facility is located, said he had not been told of the changes and expects there will be some concern among area residents.
“I will talk to (Sheriff J.J. Jones) about this,” Wright said. “I don’t know what he will say or if there is a better way of doing this. It might be financially viable to house all men at one facility and all women at the other. I would hope all the decisions were made with consideration of the fi nancial impact.”
When the Maloneyville Road facility was built many years ago, area residents were told it would not house violent offenders or maximum-security inmates. But following a federal lawsuit about overcrowding at the downtown Knox County Jail, a pod designed for maximum-security prisoners was added, and some such prisoners have periodically been held there.
Copyright 2008 Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.