About 25 people attended the Community Conversations event at Trinity Lutheran Church Thursday evening to hear about the proposed over $12 million Greene County jail.

The $12,685,000 jail would include 20 cells, four holding rooms and one padded room for violent criminals that they wouldn’t be able to cause damage to. The jail would be placed within the 11 acres that is south of the current administrative building on West Lincoln Way. Sheriff Jack Williams said they looked at land in the Greene County Development Corporation West Business Park along Highway 4, but the ground was too unstable to be used for a jail and the former Microsoy building near Landus was the other location. However, Williams said the City of Jefferson requested a $2 million road to be installed.

Williams then talked about there being 147 convicted criminals waiting to serve jail sentences and 100 more arrest warrants for law enforcement to arrest from previous crimes. However, they can’t because their current eight cell facility has been constantly full.

Williams also spoke about the 1974 facility being out of compliance with state code and he described one of their main problems is having to take inmates to unsecured portions of the jail to the basement for their required 15 minutes of daily exercise.

“So safety is the primary issue at the current jail. We have had two escapes because of those issues. And then the size of the cells is too small. And the floor in what we call the ‘day room’ where they all generally hang out to watch tv or eat their meals, the floor is breaking apart. The jail inspector (for the state) has told us we’re probably going to have to tear that floor out and replace it, and in the process of tearing out a concrete floor, probably going to damage water pipes and sewer lines. And the cost of it is pretty expensive to do that and we would have to house those inmates in another county at about $850 per day to house all of the inmates somewhere else.”       

He added because of these ongoing issues, the state could shut down their facility, much like other counties have had done within the past 2-4 years. Williams noted property taxes would increase between $1.15 and $1.50 per $1,000 of property valuation depending on how long the Board of Supervisors select for the life of the bond. If the bond were to pass, Williams said it would take two years to build the new facility. 

Williams is hoping to schedule a series of town hall meetings in all of the county towns ahead of the public vote on November 8th.