A tale of two county jails
From The Oak Ridger
May 1, 2006
John Huotari
john.huotari@oakridger.com
KINGSTON -- Take a tour of the Roane and Anderson county jails, and you are likely to spot some similarities.
The sets of locked metal doors, for example. The inmates working, talking, sleeping and playing cards -- or standing around, apparently just killing time.
You will also find some inmates eager to talk to their jailers and the media, and to pose for pictures.
But, there are key differences between the two facilities.
One is that a $3 million plan to expand the overcrowded Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton is on track, with construction bids scheduled to go out last week. Meanwhile, a $13.4 million plan to build a new Roane County Jail was knocked off track by voters in a March referendum.
Another difference is that the Anderson County facility, which is a little more than a decade old, has a central control area and direct supervision of inmates. The Roane County Jail, opened in 1974, does not.
And that makes it less effective, said Roane County's jail administrator, Capt. Fay Hall.
"Anderson County's is deluxe compared to ours," she said.
Ten-year problem
State jail inspectors have threatened to decertify the two county jails because of overcrowding, understaffing and other concerns.
Decertification, in turn, can bring legal troubles to counties, including the potential for damaging lawsuits and federal court mandates, Roane County Sheriff David Haggard said.
In Anderson County, officials have responded to the decertification threat by agreeing to hire 15 new jailers and add 59 beds to the 166-bed jail, off state Highway 61 near the Clinch River in Clinton. The jail, which averaged 181 inmates a day last year, has been recertified this year, according to Anderson County Jail Administrator Avery Johnson.
In Roane County, meanwhile, commissioners in December narrowly agreed to borrow up to $13.4 million to build a new 186-bed jail near Roane State Community College in Harriman. At the time, Haggard said it was the "first real progress we've seen in 10 years."
But county voters overwhelmingly shot down that proposal, with many saying they did not want a jail near the community college.
Now, Haggard believes, state jail inspectors from the Tennessee Corrections Institute will decertify his jail the next time they make an unannounced visit, if no progress has been made. His jail houses, on average, between 90 to 100 inmates a day in a 57-bed building near the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston and a 12-bed annex in Rockwood, Haggard said.
"They've been overgenerous with us," the sheriff said, referring to the state inspectors. "We've been looking at this problem that we've got for over 10 years."
'Drug culture'
Hall and Johnson said most of their inmates -- between 80 and 85 percent - are in jail on drug charges or activities related to drugs or alcohol. Law-enforcement officers agree that illegal drug activity leads to other crimes like forgery, theft, burglary and assault.
Haggard said most drug violations in Roane County involve pharmaceuticals, especially painkillers like hydrocodone and oxycodone.
"That is a big market," Haggard said.
He attributes most of the doubling of the female inmate population in the last six years to the "drug culture."
In Anderson County, on the other hand, activities and arrests related to methamphetamine, an illegal stimulant, have increased the jail population, Johnson said.
Related to the increase in inmates charged with drug-related activites is an increase in the number of female inmates.
Johnson said more women are ending up in jail because of stepped-up enforcement efforts and because more of them have drug habits. The Anderson County jail expansion plan includes 32 new beds for females, tripling from 16 to 48 the number of female beds.
The expansion plans also call for an unused housing unit to be opened with another 27 beds for male inmates, pushing the facility's total number of beds to 225.
Safety threats
Jail administrators say overcrowding problems pose safety threats and prevent them from classifying inmates by such criteria as age, criminal charge, behavior, sexual preference, medical problems and mental capacity. Hall and Johnson agree that a detention facility can be considered overcrowded when it passes 80 percent of its design capacity.
In an overcrowded jail, Johnson said, "We're not properly classifying inmates."
In the narrow corridors of the Roane County Jail, Hall said her staff also faces the potential danger of inmates reaching through cell bars and grabbing staff members. Also, the narrow corridors mean she cannot always properly observe her staff, Hall said.
The larger Anderson County facility has larger corridors, as well as five separate housing units, including the unused one. Jail staff members stationed in or overlooking each unit keep an eye on inmates.
Meanwhile, in Kingston, jailers oversee the facility with a sytem of video monitors -- or indirect supervision.
"There's no doubt that direct supervision is more effective," Hall said.
'No place to put them'
Johnson said Anderson County officials hope to complete their jail expansion project within the next year.
The future in Roane County is more grim. Officials say they have already studied multiple potential jail sites during the last decade, including the site near Roane State Community College.
"We're back to square one," Haggard said.
Although they do not currently have funding, the sheriff said a jail study committee recently met and talked about several new-jail alternatives, including options near the Roane County Courthouse, which is on Race Street in Kingston.
Haggard, for his part, has suggested building in the courthouse parking lot a three-level parking garage with a secure third level and a jail on the fourth level.
He believes county officials could charge for parking and that would help pay for a new jail.
Others have drawn up other alternatives.
As Roane County officials continue to hash out what to do, inmates and jail staff members will probably continue to hope for a safer and roomier future.
In the meantime, some convicts -- those convicted of driving-under-the-influence offenses, for example -- might not be able to serve their time in the county jail because of a lack of room.
"We've got no place to put them," Haggard said.
"We're starting all over again."
John Huotari can be contacted at (865) 220-5533.
Copyright 2006 The Oak Ridger. All Rights Reserved.