'HORRID': TSI looks at the state of the Coffee County Jail

Written by byron hensley | 29 August 2010

There are 196 beds in the Coffee County Jail. When The Saturday Independent visited the jail this week, there were 296 inmates being housed in the facility, with some sleeping in a holding area or drunk tank.

Typically, the jail houses from 75 to 100 more inmates than it was designed to hold. That overcrowding is the main reason the county has been told by state authorities that it needs to build a new jail soon.

The cost for a new jail is estimated at $7-8 million. If a new justice center is built with the jail, as authorities recommend for safety, security and transportation purposes, the cost rises to around $25 million. But county leaders are in agreement that it’s better for the county to act now than wait until a lawsuit against the county over jail conditions prompt a federal judge to order the county to act.

“The condition of this jail is horrid,” said Joey Farrar, an inmate who said he plans to sue the county over conditions. In addition to overcrowding, “There’s no regular outdoor exercise; we’re lucky if we go out once a month,” he said. “There’s black mold all over the place, and I’ve got respiratory trouble. The library is outdated.”

Sheriff Steve Graves said the county has not yet been sued in federal court. “Do I think it’s possible? Yes. Inmates do have rights as to square footage and the right to a humane treatment.

“We are very overcrowded,” Graves said “And when we’re overcrowded, it becomes a potential for violence. It takes away any possibilities of classifying inmates.”

Because of overcrowding, the jail can’t house misdemeanor offenders separately from medium or violent offenders. “We’re putting dangerous people with non-dangerous people,” Graves said.

Ideally, the jail should have observation rooms for inmates with medical or psychological needs. “We’ve got a lot of mental health issues in jail,” Graves said, and when inmates with such issues have to be monitored, they’re brought to the booking room. “That can be very disruptive,” he said.

A jail should be built on a pod system that allows for more efficient monitoring of inmates, and should have several two-man cells, he said.

“Usually, we’re looking at having to have two officers go into a cell with 30 people to break up a fight. That’s not a safe situation,” Graves said.

The jail also needs more housing for female inmates, which represents a growing portion of the total inmate population, he said. It needs a larger kitchen facility and more support for nurses.

The property now known as the Coffee County Jail was once Central High School, which was converted into a jail and justice center in 1981. Some of the jail’s plumbing is left over from the high school, which can cause water problems. .

Wherever the new jail goes, Graves said it shouldn’t be put in the middle of a residential area, as is the case now. “We’re getting more and more dangerous people, the type of people you wouldn‘t want to house in the middle of town.”

“This jail was built on a 1940s model,” he said. “It was not built on a perfect foundation. It was a poor design, but it was the best they had at the time.”

“This jail is a no-frills jail. Inmates have no TV, no radio, no elaborate cells. We just try to house inmates as humanely as we can, and it’s gotten to the point that we’ll have to do something to continue to be humane.”

Next week, TSI will take an in depth look at the results of a study commissioned by the county about the jail and what should replace it.