The Greene County Sheriff’s Office is once again asking voters to decide on a new county jail.

Last year, the proposed $12.685 million new 25 cell jail didn’t hit the required supermajority approval by voters of 60-percent, which was at 56-percent. This time the proposed jail is not to exceed $10 million for a 20 cell jail. Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams says for residential property owners, this would equate to a maximum of $48/$1,000 of property valuation, agriculture would be $70/acre or per $1,000 of property valuation and commercial properties would be 40-percent less than what last year’s price tag would’ve been. 

Williams points out that the current eight cell facility would far exceed $10 million to renovate it because it would mean the structure would have to be demolished and completely rebuilt. He notes that even though the current jail has been out of compliance with state code for over ten years, the jail inspector has grandfather it in, but that time is coming to a close. Williams says it will either be two years without making $70,000 in repairs or four years with repairs, before the jail is closed permanently.

Williams explains another issue they are facing is the rates they pay to house inmates in other neighboring jails. He says they pay $50-$100 per day to house inmates in other facilities and to have five guaranteed cells in another county jail, it is $150,000 per year. 

“Well we average 15 inmates at any given time a day, between here and housing elsewhere. So at 15, we’re at $450,000 a year to have guaranteed cells to house people elsewhere. We would still be paying the $50, or $75, or $100 a day as soon as we go over the 15, and we still have to shop around a jail that has the available space.”

Williams talks about what would happen if the jail were to close and if a deputy made an arrest, what the scenario would be. 

“When the deputy leaves to go to the other jail there’s nobody working in the county (through the sheriff’s office). You’ll have two to three hours that we’re going to have to call somebody out, to pay overtime, to cover the county while that officer is out. So if we have no jail, in order to keep a law enforcement office on duty in the county, and the city (of Jefferson) would be in the same boat, we’re going to have to hire four more officers just to guarantee that we have somebody working in the county.”    

Williams adds there is also a backlog of people waiting to serve jail sentences at 130 and over 180 active arrest warrants. He says if a new jail is built, then it would have about two years to process all of those individuals. The jail bond referendum is part of a special measure on the ballot for Election Day on November 7th.