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| | Thursday, December 13, 2018
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CLB meets in workshop
The Cocke County Legislative Body met in workshop Tuesday to learn about the function of the Cocke County Corrections Partnership. The county has been wrestling with the issue of jail overcrowding, jail de-certification and ways to address the issues. Bob Bass, a consultant with the Tennessee Corrections Institute(TCI) told the body that statewide there are six uncertified jails, and two are in Cocke County. He said the TCI was formed a number of years ago because of the number of lawsuits against officers and jails in the state. According to Bass, 70 percent of the county's current liability is it's two jails. Currently, TCI trains 12,000 officers annually in Tennessee. The consultant said the decertification of the local jails is the result of no "measurable progress" in addressing the issues. Bass said one county plans to begin heavy usage of GPS ankle monitors after the first of the year, because it found a way to reduce the cost. "Using ankle bracelets is nothing new; what's new is that the bracelets will cost $2.85 per day, per monitor. The reason they were able to negotiate that contract is because they are going to monitor the bracelets at the jail. The jail will be able to pull up an app and be able to tell where everyone who is wearing an ankle bracelet, is at. Bass said such bracelets typically have cost $25 to $30 per day for each inmate, with company monitoring."This may be what we are looking for," he told the group. He said the inmate would have to agree to bear the cost of the monitoring. Currently, with the high cost of GPS monitoring, many inmates decide simply to sit in jail. But Sheriff Armando Fontes said the local courts have tried ankle bracelets but have curtailed the usage because 99 percent of the inmates who were released, violated their restrictions. In addition, the sheriff said if such a plan was implemented he would have to hire an individual to monitor the devices 24 hours a day. If a new facility is built, Bass pointed out that under state law a justice center must be built in the city, a stand-alone jail can be constructed anywhere. Bass said a new issue which must be considered in the layout of a new jail is the fact that the percentage of female inmates has been increasing in recent years.
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