Hurricane Helene creates additional issues for already stressed local jails

Two east Tennessee detention centers are facing issues from Hurricane Helene and are looking at options, a state official told a Senate committee.

The Cocke County Detention Center and the Courthouse Annex were damaged by the storm, which forced the sheriff to evacuate and house inmates in other locations.

Neighboring Jefferson County offered the use of an unused workhouse temporarily, William Wall, executive director of the Tennessee Corrections Institute, told the Senate State and Local Governments Corrections Subcommittee.

"I'm working with the governor's chief of staff right now, looking at some long-term options to help them out," Wall said.

The Unicoi County Jail still has major sewer problems two weeks after the storm and could have to evacuate, Wall said. Greene County has significant water issues and he is hoping for no further evacuations.

Local jails, particularly in smaller and rural areas, are already facing challenges, Wall said. The jail population increased 6% over the last year and is currently around 27,000, which is more than the prison population, Wall said.

Statewide, jails are at about 85% capacity. That's still lower than before the COVID-19 era, which was as high as 98%, he said.

Thirty-eight county detention facilities are considered overcrowded.

One of the issues is the "inordinate amount" of inmates charged with felonies that are awaiting trial, according to Wall.

"It's not normal in some areas where it's 25 to 30% of the local jail population," he said.

However, building local jails is not an option as construction costs have risen, and there is no federal money to build county jails.

"The problem is construction costs are between $800 and $1,000 a square foot for building a jail right now and rural and distressed at-risk communities can't afford to do it," Wall said. "Yet most of those I'm speaking of are the ones that are overcrowded."

Some inmates in county jails are awaiting transfer to the state's prison system. Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada said there has been a 10% increase in intake over the past year.

The Bledsoe County Correctional Facility, which serves as the intake center for all male inmates entering the state prison system, only has so many beds, and sometimes there's a waiting period, Strada said.

The Department of Corrections is facing a challenge of its own in retaining staff. The numbers are improving, but there's still a 27% vacancy rate for correctional officers in state-run prisons.

The state's four private prisons operated by CoreCivic are also short-staffed. The company has been cited with more than $29.5 million in liquidated damages since 2022, Inspector General Kim Gulden told the committee.