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| New Jail Stands Empty |
| By Chuck Eckles, dodgecountynews.com |
| Published: 04/27/2011 |
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Dodge County commissioners and sheriff’s officials are expected to meet with architects and the construction contractor Friday morning, April 29 at the new Dodge County Law Enforcement Center (LEC). The purpose of the meeting is for the final inspection of the facility and the turning over of the keys from the contractor to the county commissioners. However, the new LEC will stand empty and vacant for an unknown period of time due to the county commissioners being unable to fund the staffing and operation of the new facility. The current Dodge County jail, at full strength, operates with a staff of thirteen (13) employees; including detention officers, a jail administrator and a cook. The new jail facility will require a staff of thirty (30) personnel to run the facility; this is an increase of seventeen (17) additional personnel. This is the minimum staffing required to run the new jail based on man power studies done by the Georgia Sheriff’s Association and to meet various best practice standards of the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Jail Association, the American Correctional Association, the Georgia Sheriff’s Association and the American Disabilities Act (ADA). Those standards of the various agencies are what jails are compared to when they are sued in civil courts. The current jail has seventy (70) beds and can house up to eighty (80) inmates, per the fire marshall. The average daily population of the Dodge County jail is between eighty-five (85) and ninety (90) per day. Dodge County currently houses over capacity inmates in the Appling, Bleckley and Laurens County jails at a cost of $35.00 per day per inmate to the county. The old jail also does not meet modern fire codes and is currently operating under an exemption due to the jail being originally constructed in 1972. Several years ago, the county passed a Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) to build a new jail. Plans were drawn up under prior sheriff’s administrations and commissioners. The SPLOST covered $5.5 million with the option to go up to $8 million in bonds for construction. However, the SPLOST and bonds can not be used for operating costs or salaries. The ground breaking was held in 2006. However, construction did not actively begin until 2010 after a contractor was selected by the commissioners The 2011 budget proposed to the county commissioners to operate the new 60,000 square foot jail, which will house one hundred sixty-eight (168) inmates, was composed based on the budgets of several Georgia jails with the same bed capacity and counties with a similar population. The recommended budget to run enforcement, court operations and the new jail was $2.68 million. The budget that was approved by county commissioners in March 2011 for the sheriff’s office was $1.86 million. That is a reduction of $821,297.00 from what is required to a run a facility such as new the Dodge County Law Enforcement Center. Read More. |
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