Dekalb County Jail To Be Studied For Expansion Possibilities

A decision on whether to expand or build a new Dekalb County Jail is coming for the county commission.

Sheriff Patrick Ray said the Tennessee Corrections Institute found the jail’s square footage was not up to standards during an inspection last year. Ray said the pandemic set back a CTAS feasibility study while beds are continuing to fill up.

“A lot of failure to appears and pretrial detainees are held here now,” Ray said. “We see our population growing everyday and that is going to become a factor for us before too long.”

Ray said that something will have to be done to add space to the jail, based on the CTAS recommendation. Ray said the next step is having the study conducted and presented to the county commission for a decision on how to proceed.

“I did talk to CTAS,” Ray said. “They told us they would be here soon to do the feasibility study and go from there.”

Ray said the Tennessee Corrections Institute was supposed to meet last year with the commission, but the pandemic kicked in. He said the TCI inspection went fine other than the size issue and lighting for inmate cells.

“We’re just now getting around to getting a study done by CTAS,” Ray said. “It will be a feasibility study to see if there is a need to build onto the jail or to build a new jail. Whichever is a better deal to do.”

Ray said the jail has 102 beds. He said that currently they average about 75-85 inmates a day, but that number is growing after taking a dip due to COVID reasons.