November 4, just three months away, is “D-Day” for the future of the Habersham County Jail. On that day, county voters will decide whether to authorize funding to build a new $52 million jail.
The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that voters will decide on in November would also pay for various other county and municipal projects, including new headquarters for the fire department and emergency services, police and fire vehicles, and improvements to roads, bridges, and parks and recreational facilities.
The current SPLOST expires this year. If SPLOST VIII is approved, Habersham’s overall sales tax would remain 7%. If it fails, the sales tax would decrease to 6%. That is a possibility that county officials, particularly those who work at the jail, prefer not to dwell on.
Touted as a state-of-the-art, ‘will last us into the future’ facility when it opened in 1997, the Habersham County Detention Center has not held up well. Within twelve years, the jail developed porous leaks and rust, and by 2009, then–newly elected Sheriff Joey Terrell was warning of potential lawsuits.
Current jail administrators echo his concern.
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Jail tour
During a recent tour of the jail, current Habersham County Sheriff Robin Krockum and Major Les Hendrix pointed out a number of problem areas with the current facility. For example, in the guard tower, from which an officer should be able to view every corner of the prison, a horizontal structural steel beam blocks the officer’s line of sight.
Hendrix also noted several respects in which the jail fails ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance, as access to some areas is difficult—even impossible—for prisoners who use wheelchairs.
In one general area, male inmates milled about near walls that are stained, damaged, and chipped. One cubicle that used to be a shower is now so severely damaged it’s out of use altogether, and lighting is poor throughout.
The women’s cell block appeared to be similarly broken down and in need of repair. About six female inmates circulated in the open room and greeted Hendrix by name when he stopped in.
The jail infirmary is so small that one can touch both walls at once; a nurse sat hunched over a computer, working.
The crowded jail has small spaces for meetings between attorneys and the prisoners they represent; mere nooks and crannies for religious chaplains to meet with inmates; and no space at all for larger religious services or group meals. Under the current system, meals are served individually to prisoners on carts wheeled through the narrow hallways.
Serving and separating inmage populations
The jail kitchen, Hendrix said, was built in the 1990s to serve 90 meals at a time, but the current headcount in the prison is 162. Food services will also require an upgrade to maintain mandated nutritional standards for inmates.
Inmates are regularly allowed out into the jail’s general areas for outdoor recreation, or indoor areas to watch television, listen to music, or play board games. However, only a few can be allowed out at a time because federal and state rules dictate that dangerous offenders be kept separately from juveniles. Mentally unstable patients must be segregated from the general population, and, of course, men from women, who make up a growing percentage of the jail population.
Prisoners who are considered a threat to harm others or themselves must also be housed separately and kept under careful scrutiny, Krockum noted.
“You don’t want to put an 18-year-old DUI case in here with an older gentleman who’s been put in here for aggravated assault; you don’t ever want to put them together,” Hendrix said.
Each of these separated populations would be better and more safely served in a new configuration, the Sheriff said. Krockum and Hendrix anticipate a “wheel and spoke” arrangement, where each block—for different kinds of prisoners—radiates from a central hub.
Space stressors
The demand for more space stems from a few causes, the law enforcement officials said. More men, and especially more women, are being arrested. The overall jail population has grown.
Changes in state law have also had an effect. The threshold for felonious theft used to begin at a $500 value for the item stolen, but after changes a few years ago, it’s a $1,500 minimum. This means more of the smaller thefts result in misdemeanor convictions, and those are the convicts in the county jail, as opposed to state-run facilities that house felons.
“That’s put even more of a strain on us,” Krockum said.
Touting online taxes
The cost of a new jail remains a sticking point for many taxpayers, who feel overburdened by ever-increasing property tax assessments and inflation. However, County Manager Tim Sims said the burden on taxpayers is less than it would have been a few years ago, thanks to the internet.
“There’s been a big boost in revenue because of online sales tax,” Sims said. For the first decades of online shopping, it was difficult to collect state or local taxes from online sales, but now the mechanisms are firmly in place. “We now expect to get about $10 million extra revenue as a result of the [online] tax,” he said.
Sims added that a lot of the sales tax burden never touches Habersham Countians’ pockets.
“The Chamber of Commerce has found that roughly 30 to 40 percent of the sales tax comes from people out of the county,” coming through to shop, eat, or stay here.
Revenue generating
Perhaps most important from the taxpayers’ point of view is that the new, larger jail would, in part, pay for itself, according to Sims and Sheriff Krockum. A new, larger jail would allow Habersham to “rent” space to other jurisdictions, as far away as Atlanta (one of the many jurisdictions chronically lacking in jail space). The charges of $55 a day per inmate would reverse the expenditure that Habersham currently absorbs to transport and house inmates in other jurisdictions, as far out as Crawford in Oglethorpe County, more than 65 miles away.
Sims and Krockum said “exporting” prisoners to be housed in other counties currently costs Habersham $400,000 to $600,000 a year. It also drains time for guards to travel with prisoners, time that would better be spent attending to the local population.
Once construction is complete, the county would take in revenue from other jurisdictions to help defray the cost of building a new jail, the officials said. This assumes, Hendrix acknowledged, that there is not a huge leap in crime locally that would demand full use of the new jail.
Rehabilitation, not just punishment
Krockum and Hendrix said they have no immediate plans to go out and “lobby” for SPLOST VIII, though Sims is planning to speak to some community groups about the need for a new jail. All of the officials interviewed said they hoped one of the benefits of the new construction would be space to afford prisoners rehabilitation, not just punishment.
“You’ve got to do the right thing for folks; this is the right thing.”
“We’d be able to get a mobile GED course going with North Georgia Technical College,” Hendrix said. There are currently only very limited, online courses for self-improvement available to the prison population.
Hendrix said he contacted NGTC’s Dean of Adult Education Shelby Ward to talk about prospects for a joint effort. Ward was not immediately available for comment when contacted late Wednesday.
Krockum and Hendrix made the point that while, for now, building the jail is at the county taxpayers’ discretion—meaning the SPLOST vote in November—there is always a chance that it will not remain so. If the federal government finds, as it did in Fulton County, that the current jail is unsafe or in danger of violating inmates’ civil rights, the government can mandate the construction of a new jail at taxpayer expense, or even build it on its own and charge the county, quite likely at a higher price.
The ‘right thing’ to do
A contractor to build the new cells has already been identified—Baldwin-based SteelCell, which builds correctional units nationwide. The designs meet Habersham’s goals, officials said, including utilities attached to but outside the cells, so that maintenance can be done without jeopardizing security. The new jail cells would arrive, already configured, on a truck. The new building would then be built around the cells.
County taxpayers have rejected SPLOST referendums in the past. Still, Sims and jail administrators argue the expenditure is not only wise, but necessary, and may well avert unpredictable expenses down the road.
Asked what he says when challenged on the cost of the jail, Sims said, “You’ve got to do the right thing for folks; this is the right thing. Even though we may not like it, because it is for folks who have done things wrong, they’re still human, and we have to take care of things…in a humane way.”
