News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The DeKalb County Jail has had its number of certified beds cut by almost half after a recent inspection from the Tennessee Corrections Institute.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said the county has been working with TCI for years after learning the jail has structural and square footage issues. He said the inspection resulted in the number of certified beds dropping from 102 to 52 as well as the closure of the jail’s basement portion.
“It’s going to be very challenging for us because if we put other inmates in other jails,” Ray said. “Of course, they’re transporting back and forth to court which ties up some of our officers to do that and also even down to our fuel that is in our budget, of course, fuel is high right now.”
Ray said the jail currently makes about $55.40 per day per inmate. He said they are trying to either get a jail that will help the county and hold the inmates for free or try to see if the judges will work with the sentences they have to do some kind of alternative to custody in jail. Ray said they have a total of 82 inmates as of Wednesday.
Ray said they were aware that TCI was going to decertify the basement area of the jail, so they have been putting plans together to house female inmates in other jails. He said an all-male jail will allow them to stay within capacity.
“The way our jail is built it will be hard to house female inmates here so it will be easier to do the male inmates so we’re just going to ship our females to another county or something to hold them,” Ray said.
Ray said this change will be permanent until the county can come up with a brand new facility to move into. He said conversations with the county commission have been ongoing to construct a new jail with a criminal justice center in it.
