With a vote of 12 to nine, the Claiborne County Commission officially gave the green light to the much-discussed and quite controversial project to expand the Claiborne County Jail.
The bulk of the lengthy meeting last week was spent discussing the now estimated $11.5 million expansion and renovation project.
The discussion seemed at times a bit contentious, particularly between Claiborne Sheriff David Ray and county resident Joe Brooks, who are apparently on opposing sides of the expansion fence.
In his address, Brooks said he had spoken to Jim Fowler, director of the Tennessee Marshal’s Office – Eastern District, about the apparent intergovernmental agreement to allow the county to house discretionary prisoners.
According to Brooks, Fowler “stressed” the point that there is no contract and that it is an “inaccurate fact” that there is or ever will be a guaranteed number of discretionary prisoners housed in the Claiborne County Jail.
Brooks said he was told that once the expansion is completed, the addition of 200 beds will net the housing of another 30 inmates, raising the total to just 60 discretionary prisoners.
“He wasn’t going to guarantee that he would give us a hundred prisoners, especially at $76 a day. But, you’re about to hedge your bets on it,” said Brooks.
The soon-completion of the new penitentiary in middle Tennessee should alleviate much of the overcrowding in many of the county jails, he said.
Brooks also pointed to a proposed bill currently being discussed in the General Assembly that, if passed, could move “tens of thousands” of nonviolent drug offenders from jails and into rehabilitation clinics.
“About 90 percent of what you said is untrue,” said Ray, as he began his address. “It was David Ray’s idea to start with 30 prisoners – it wasn’t Washington D.C. – and the local people did not negotiate this agreement. Washington D.C did.
“Let me tell you where you’re so wrong. It is not that they would limit us to 60 people in this jail if we give them 200 more beds. That was never a figure. We could have gotten 60 prisoners, to begin with. We could have gotten 75. It was me who said no, because I didn’t know what we were stepping into. It was me, who agreed to transport those federal prisoners to and from Greenville, Tennessee, and to a federal institution,” said Ray.
He denied ever saying the county would receive $76 per day for housing prisoners. Ray did point to a recent newspaper article stating another county was in line to receive that amount for their discretionary prisoners.
As for the new penitentiary, Ray said he had been told there were enough prisoners from other areas of the state to fill the beds of the new facility by July.
Ray said he had learned at a recent Sheriff’s Association meeting that some 9,000 prisoners currently sitting in county jails are awaiting transfer.
Just think of the windfall this county will get, Ray said, once the jail expansion project is paid.
Ray said he foresees no tax increases within the next ten years, if the expansion project goes forward.
“If I knew it would cost the taxpayers one dime, I’d stand before this (commission board) and say, ‘vote no,’” said Ray.
During the discussion, county mayor Jack Daniels reminded those present of the well-over three years spent sweating over the expansion project. Nashville, Daniels said, gave the county marching orders to make major progress to correct the overcrowding situation.
“I promise you one thing, that when this jail is decertified, the taxpayers will pay the effects,” said Daniels.
Later in the discussion, Brooks questioned the reasoning behind the commission’s apparent increase of the original project cap, set at some $10.2 million. However, there seemed to be no clear response to the question.
When it came time for the official vote, commissioners Zachary Bunch, Juanita Honeycutt, Mike Campbell, Ann Bowling, Steve Mason, Joan Cosby, Dan Longworth, William Jessie, Shawn Peters, David Mundy, James Hatmaker and Dennis Estes voted for the expansion project.
Those voting not to move ahead were commissioners Whitt Shuford, Charlton Vass, Bill Keck, Gary Poore, Nicholas Epperson, Anthony Rowe, Mitchell Cosby, Bill Johnson and Aimee Upton.
Keck was the lone nay vote of those commissioners who also sit on the Jail Committee, officially known as the Claiborne Correctional Partnership Act Committee.
The full commission will address the financial side of this project during its regular monthly meeting in February.
Reach Jan Runions at 423-254-5588 or on Twitter @scribeCP.
