By Natalie Neysa Alund
The News-Sentinel
JACKSBORO, Tenn. — The Campbell County jail on Friday housed about 200 inmates, with more than half of them sleeping on mats on the floor.
The 24,000-square-foot facility has 92 beds - 117 short of what it needs to house its 209 prisoners.
“Right now we’re ranging about 200 of them a day,” said Stanley Marlow, project manager for Campbell County. “You can’t step either direction without stepping on someone.”
To alleviate crowding, Campbell County commissioners next month are slated to vote whether to approve a proposed justice center that would include a new jail with an additional 150 beds. The plan is to build a 45,000-square-foot justice center that would include a new 25,000-square-foot jail next to the existing facility, said County Commissioner Rusty Orick.
The county sold $10.1 million in bonds to pay for the center, said Orick, who is also the county’s jail committee chairman. That means there would be no tax increase if commissioners approve its construction, he said.
Not only is the proffered facility needed to address crowding, it will be built to help update security.
“Right now the inmates are taken from the jail across the parking lot and into the courthouse. They pass by people, and that’s dangerous,” Orick said. “This way they’ll come straight from the jail in an elevator just for prisoners.”
The county’s original jail, attached to the courthouse on Main Street, was built in 1962 with a designed capacity of 48.
In 2003, inmate Michael Gray sued the county, complaining of overpopulation. A settlement was later reached and the county built a bigger 92-bed jail that opened in 2007.
That same year the original jail caught fire and a fire marshal deemed it unfit for use. Once again, more room is needed.
If commissioners approve the proposed justice center, the current 92-bed jail will remain, but the original jail will be torn down and the new 150-bed jail will go up in it place.
The first two floors of the proposed judicial center will house inmate cells, said Keith Julian, a project manager with Michael Brady Inc., the Knoxville-based architects the county hired to oversee the project’s renderings. Its third floor will include courtrooms and offices for the Circuit Court clerk and the district attorney general, who Orick said would rent space from the county to help pay for the proposed facility.
The clerk’s office is currently housed in the courthouse. The district attorney general’s office is above the sheriff’s department.
Campbell County isn’t alone when it comes to jail crowding.
On Friday, the Hamblen County jail had 273 inmates, officials said. It has 255 beds.
That same day, Sevier County Sheriff Ron Seals said his jail housed 480 inmates. The maximum capacity is 442.
He’s hoping that number drops during the summer.
“Winter is busier, and there’s a lot of people out of work right now,” he said. “We’ll watch it for a few years and look to see if there’s a need for additional inmate housing space. If it doesn’t go down, we’ll bring it before the commission, and see what we need to do.”
The highest number of prisoners housed at the Campbell County jail was on Feb. 21 when it had 222 inmates, said Campbell County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Jonathan Finley. He chalks up the recent high population to a bad meth problem in the county.
Since Sept. 1, 2010, the Sheriff’s Department has busted 73 meth labs and during those busts netted 48 arrests, he said.
Since that same date, arrests made by Campbell County Sheriff Robbie Goins’ deputies have increased by 52 percent, Finley said.
During the Feb. 22 commissioner meeting, Commissioner Beverly Hall made a motion not to tear the old jail down, officials said. She said she wanted to use it for storage. The vote failed 10-4, with one commissioner absent.
When reached by phone at work this week, Hall said she was too busy to comment, then hung up.
Commissioners Bob Walden and Melvin Boshears did not return phone calls.
The county plans to advertise for bids for the proposed justice center Thursday, Orick said.
The bid date is slated April 7, and commissioners vote April 18.
If approved, construction is slated to start in May, officials said.
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