The overcrowding problem is still hitting the Lauderdale County Jail even with their brand new women’s facility.
Inmates are still sleeping on the floor because there aren’t enough beds. The new women’s dorm means 53 less people are sleeping on the floor, but there are still 75 as of Monday who don’t have another option.
The new women’s dorm, the Lauderdale County Jail’s first dormitory-style facility, wasn’t going to solve the overcrowding problem. County officials knew that. But it would help.
“When we started this it was just to give us some kind of relief,” said Sheriff Rick Singleton. “We had as many as 342 in the other facility with 203 beds. This puts 53 of those people on a bed.”
One and a half million dollars later, the issue still stands. So does the need for solutions.
The long-term fix the sheriff is pushing for is building a new jail. In the meantime they’re looking at possibly taking one of the two dorms in the work release center and turning it into an inmate dorm. The sheriff says the work release center is in worse shape than the current jail and needs to be renovated.
He says there’s already been damage inside the new women’s building a week into moving in, but there are also more eyes.
“We hired eight more corrections deputies,” said Director of Corrections Jason Butler.
And as part of the law for a jail dorm…
“We’re having to keep two deputies in with the inmates, enough to keep down the fights and things like that,” Singleton said. “We’d probably have more issues if we hadn’t done that.”
A new jail is estimated to cost $35 million. Until then, the sheriff says this new dorm helps a lot.
“Obviously we don’t want to put anybody on the floor but this is a jail and you can’t put up a ‘no vacancy’ sign.”
The sheriff hopes once they eventually build a new jail, the women’s center can be used as the work release center.
