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| | Wednesday, January 18, 2017
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Cocke Corrections Partnership
The Cocke County Corrections Partnership was presented with dollar estimates for a new jail or justice center at a Tuesday meeting. Jay Henderlight of Michael Brady Architects said his proposed layout for a 250 or 284 bed jail was based on his interviews with jail and court personnel. The proposals estimate a 250 bed facility, 108,000 feet in size would cost about $25 million and a 284 bed jail with 113,500 square feet would have as cost of about $26 million. However if the facility was expanded to a justice center with courtrooms and offices, the smaller facility would cost about $32 million and the larger, an estimated $34 million. The operations would include a library, two classrooms, medical treatment room and two elevators. Those figures do not include the 18 to 20 acre site for the facility. Henderlight suggested the county may need the larger scale plan because "you seem to have more people arrested per capita, than some other counties." The architect said the county must address several issues.....Finding a property is real important, figuring out what the jail and courts need to be is real important and then figuring out where you will get the money and what you can spend is important". Another consideration is to determine how many employees will be needed to staff the jail, and making sure that the positions are funded. The architect reminded the committee that construction costs increased about four to five percent last year and are expected to climb by the same level this year. Public Defender Keith Haas urged the committee to move ahead on a facility, arguing that involvement of the federal courts if no decision is made locally, will mean a much more expensive facility. The committee indicated it may move to fund a jail or justice center with a wheel tax. Several years ago a wheel tax was approved by the CLB but when it was taken to a vote by the public it was defeated. Sheriff Armando Fontes said the jail in 2016 booked in an average of 10 inmates daily. There have been 17 fights in the jail already this year, and the sheriff said the tension stems in part from the overcrowding...."they get on each other's nerves," he explained.
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