Bedford County Weighs Out New Jail Options

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. — Plans for a new Bedford County Jail in Shelbyville continue to develop, as a five-member Courthouse and Property Committee (made up of some Bedford County Commission members) recommended the construction of a 400-bed justice center to replace the outdated facility at a recent May 26 meeting.

The decision comes after the current jail failed several state inspections earlier this year, resulting in a stern warning from inspectors who told Bedford County leaders in February that they’d likely have to decertify the jail this June due to overcrowding and poor jail conditions, according to NewsChannel 5. At that time, Bedford County commissioners approved a last-minute $30,000 to make some quick repairs, but inspectors have said that they will only continue to recertify the jail as long as the county continues making progress towards replacing it, reported the Shelbyville Times-Gazette.

Decertification could be disastrous for the county and would result in increased insurance rates as well as costly housing and transportation rates since inmates would need to be housed in other facilities and then transported back into Bedford County during trials.

In the May 26 meeting, architect Jim Langford from Collierville, Tenn.-based Spirit Architecture told the committee that it needs to come to a decision on a site and scope of the project. A jail and sheriff’s office would cost about $20 million to $22 million, he estimated, while a justice center would cost about $6 million to $7 million more than that.

Langford recommended building a single-story jail on a larger footprint, rather than a multistory jail on a smaller footprint because a single-story facility requires fewer staff if it is designed around a central control center, reported the Shelbyville Times-Gazette. This design also complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

While it is still too soon to tell, Sheriff Austin Swing told NewsChannel 5 that it’s reasonable to assume that property taxes would be increased in order to pay for the new jail if another source of funding is unavailable. The full board of commissioners is expected to make their final decision about the jail soon.