Clay County Sheriff Brandon Boone said he is scheduled to meet with the Tennessee Corrections board this week to discuss the county’s progress on a new jail.
And Boone said he continues to wait on the federal government. Clay County currently awaiting approval for a $15 million USDA loan to fund the construction. Boone said the county expects to receive an approval letter from the USDA anytime now.
“The only thing that worries me of not building now and housing our inmates in other facilities is at some point them facilities can say, ‘Hey, come get your inmates. Come get them tomorrow,'” Boone said. “And what are we going to do? You know, where are we going to put them? Um, so that’s that’s what concerns me about not doing something or moving forward with trying to get a jail built.”
Boone said the county has been under a plan of action with the Tennessee Corrections Institute since 2012
“I have a newspaper article from 1986, ‘county commission plans on building new jail,’ and we still not got that new jail,” Boone said. “We’re currently housing quite a few inmates in other facilities, and that will not stop. Even if we do not build a jail, you know, we’re going to have to continue to pay for the inmates being housed in other places.”
Boone said the current design for the facility includes approximately 72 to 74 beds. Boone said the county has already collected some $2.4 million through a wheel tax reserve fund that is strictly designated for the jail project.
“It’s very important because ultimately that the cost in years down the road is going to be more,” Boone said. “And if you can design it to where you can add, you know, another 25 inmates or or even more in the future without having to go and try to build a whole new other facility. Most of the jails that’s built in today’s market is is built with that in mind, you know, think for the future.”
Boone said the age and infrastructure of the current facility make renovation costs comparable to or more expensive than new construction. Boone said the county is also limited by property owners who are unwilling to sell adjacent land for expansion at the current site.
“It’s hard to put into words so they can understand of what my employees go through on a daily basis of having to shift inmates, move inmates around, not being able to house an inmate because of medical or because of prescriptions they’re on,” Boone said. “Dealing with crisis suicidal inmates or problem inmates. Obviously no other county wants to take on a problem and and that’s understandable. But you know, we’re faced a lot of times with putting someone in a hallway here for a while just because we don’t have the proper facility here to isolate them and put them in a holding cell to where they can be monitored the way that the laws require you to nowadays.”
Boone said the project has been in development for several years and previously went out to bid in 2019 before being delayed due to high costs.
