Sullivan County new jail nears opening, staffing plan in motion

BLOUNTVILLE — Sullivan County will open the doors to its long-awaited jail expansion in the next two months, a project that has been in development for just over two years.During the county's budget meeting on Wednesday, committee members learned that the new jail will open on June 16 for employees, and the first group of inmates are set to transfer in on July 14.Chief Lee Carswell, jail administrator for the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, told the committee the initial phase will focus on support areas, including central control, the kitchen and the medical area, before inmates are moved in. "They will have the command, the security control portion open on June 16," Carswell said. "That's a completely new system that our guards have to get trained on. Then by July 14, we'll be able to open up 336 beds. Now, realistically, of those 336 beds, you can only occupy probably 300 of them because you're going to have some people that can't stay in a double occupation."Carswell added that the existing jail remains in crisis mode due to overcrowding."We're not doing fine. Right now it is a forest fire over there," he said. "And it has been since we began talking. We send five, six inmates out a week to the hospital. I just want to remind everybody that we're in the position we're in right now because we had to be, not because we wanted to be. This new facility had to be done."In February, the county commission approved funding for 30 new staff positions to support the new expansion, including 20 shift correctional officers, one training officer, one population manager, four shift sergeants and four registered nurses.As of this week, 25 of those positions have been hired and are currently undergoing training, Carswell said. The sheriff's office had originally proposed 59 new positions but has since reduced that number by six, requesting funding for only 23 additional roles.The June 16 and July 14 openings will be staffed using current personnel. However, Carswell emphasized that Phase 3, scheduled for Oct. 6, will require the 23 new hires to support 224 additional beds.The final phase of expansion, Phase 4, is slated for Nov. 17, when Quadrant 3 opens and the Jail Extension or annex will officially close. Staff from the annex including 25 positions will be reassigned to the new quadrant, requiring no additional hires.Even with the new facility opening, the original jail will remain operational. As of Wednesday, it was housing an average of 840 inmates."We're going to have to keep all those beds open in the old original jail," Sheriff Jeff Cassidy said. "We've got 35 to 40 in a cell that houses 16, and so we can get some of those violent offenders and separate them in those pods."School Resource OfficersDuring the meeting, Sullivan County Sheriff's Office Financial Director Michael Kennedy updated committee members on challenges tied to funding for School Resource Officers or SROs. Kennedy said the state reimburses $75,000 per school for SRO, but this amount hasn't kept pace with the annual raises given to county employees."The issue is we've been giving raises each year to all county employees. We're giving 5% raises each year, $2 raises to the officers. And at some point I'm projecting that we're going to need more money than what's actually given to us by the state is $1.125 million," Kennedy said.Kennedy estimated that number to be around $55,00 for the officers. "We still have enough funds there right now, but I would assume by the end of June we will probably need to move approximately $55,000 over to cover salaries and benefits."The committee will continue reviewing and finalizing the Sheriff's Office budget request along with other departmental budget proposals during next Wednesday's budget meeting. They will meet at the Finance and Administration Building, located at the former Blountville Elementary School at 155 School Ave., Blountville.