He coaxed, cajoled and, when all else failed, ordered county officials to replace antiquated and overcrowded jails with new facilities to meet state and federal regulations.  Garrison’s calendar is no longer full. His battles are few and far between.  “It’s different,” said Garrison, who began his work in January 1997. “I don’t have as many county commissioners to meet now. I no longer have to go over and over and over the push for new jails.”

Since 1997, 38 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties have built new jails or annexes or undergone extensive remodeling.  Only seven holdout counties remain in violation of government codes. Caddo, Canadian, Cleveland, Delaware, Kay, Seminole, Washington and Washita county jails are currently operating in violation of state and federal codes for one reason or another.

Delaware County offers a prime example of the importance of building the right facility on the first try. In 2000, Delaware County unveiled a new courthouse and jail — a jail Garrison predicted would be too small to house its prison population.Garrison was right. County officials are now scrambling to build a new jail. On Jan. 13, voters defeated a half-cent sales tax to finance the construction of an $11 million, 228-bed jail. If money is not secured soon, the county could face up to $10,000 in fines a day for being in violation of a state Health Department order.

In Washington County, officials are mired in a lawsuit over land designated for a new jail. The 5.4-acre lot cost the county $187,000, but needed to be rezoned. The city council initially voted down the rezoning, only to approve the change at a later vote … In the meantime, jail administrator Gordon Brown said the county is spending $6,000 to $10,000 a month housing its prisoners in other jails.

intended reduce the number of lawsuits filed against county sheriffs’ offices.    Greenwood said most lawsuits against sheriffs are the result of something that happened in a jail setting and that his bill “makes our sheriffs better qualified to serve the public.”   Currently, when a person files to run for sheriff, they are required to show that they have received police training and been certified as a peace officer.  The proposed legislation would add a requirement that, between the time of election and time of taking office, any newly elected county sheriff complete a 40-hour correctional facility management course.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the state agency charged with overseeing detention centers, noted seven “areas of non-compliance” in its report, which was released Friday after a three-day inspection.  The jail was also docked for not annually testing all officers and inmates for tuberculosis, multiple maintenance-related issues and failure to document hourly visual checks of inmates by certain jailers.

Chief Deputy Sheriff Rolando Tafolla [pictured right] said that while the Sheriff’s Office is ultimately responsible for all issues that arise within the jail, he maintained that the areas of non-compliance were largely outside of its control. “They are things that can be corrected. Unfortunately, we did not pass,” said Tafolla, who served as interim sheriff for about 18 months after former Sheriff Ralph Lopez was forced to resign. “We have a big jail, and there are a lot of problems.”

Much more in the article at the Express-News.

The Tennessee Corrections Institute has given the Greene County officials until Dec. 3 to approve a long-term plan for dealing with overcrowding at the Greene County Detenction Center, or jail.  Sheriff Steve Burns and Commissioner Jerry Weems appeared before the TCI in October, and were told to have a plan ready by Dec. 3 or face the detention center’s decertification … Burns said the Greene County Detention Center has been “written up” by state officials not only because of basic overcrowding, but because the existing jail does not have enough space to “segregate” violent criminals or gang members from the general inmate population, something the plans for a new jail would seek to address.

A similar workshop meeting was held Nov. 3, but could reach no agreement. County Mayor Alan Broyles said then that the purpose of Monday’s meeting was to come up with a plan that could be presented as a resolution at the Nov. 17 monthly meeting of the Greene County Commission. However, a non-binding “poll” showed that only a handful of commissioners were ready at this time to support some phase of the “new jail, new site” plan, and most were not ready to vote for any plan.

Sheriff Steve Burns has repeatedly said he believes that, if a large enough new detention center, or jail, is built, it can be paid for, or mostly paid for, from additional revenue that will come from housing larger numbers of state and federal inmates. The county currently receives $38 per inmate per day for housing prisoners who are in the custody of the Tennessee Department of Corrections, and $48 per inmate per day for inmates in federal custody, mostly awaiting trial or other action in U.S. District Court either in Greeneville or elsewhere.  However, county budget director David Lawing has said he does not see how the inmate fees can generate more than 65 to 70 percent of the cost of a detention center.  On Monday, Lawing said he thinks inmate funding could fall roughly $1.2 million short if the county commission decides to build the entire $64 million project …

Last week, Jeff Hedden, the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee, said that the federal government values its relationship with Greene County, and said he thinks that the federal government will need short-term jail space for large numbers of prisoners awaiting court action for the forseeable future, though no guarantees are possible  …

Since the straw poll did not lead to a resolution for the full commission, at the end of Monday’s workshop, Broyles said he would “try to travel to Nashville Dec. 3 to plead the case for Greene County, explain to them that we have worked hard,” and ask for continued certification while that work continues …

Monday’s workshop began when architect Dave Wright presented commissioners with a  … booklet … that he said included 23 possible configurations of the various elements of plans for the proposed new $64 million jail on a new site first presented last week.  The plan that Wright presented did not include land costs, or staffing costs … Wright said the entire project, if built, would result in 286,400 square feet of new construction, and a capacity of 596 beds.  The option that included “the very least you could get by with,” Wright said, called for a one 192-bed cell block, a “core”section with space for utilities, an intake/booking area as large as the cell block, and a small jail administration area …

Wright said expansion and renovation of the present detention center adding 250 new beds and a 64-bed dormitory, would cost about $22 million. It would include administrative and kitchen upgrades, improvements to the “sally port” where vehicles containing prisoners enter the jail, and would require relocating the existing sheriff’s offices elsewhere, at additional cost …

Sheriff Burns pointed out that the current county budget depends on housing an average of 54 federal inmates and a similar number of state inmates. He pointed out that the county has avoided property tax increases for several years by using revenue from housing inmates to balance the general fund. This year, those two sources generate about $2 million, Burns said. “It takes 77 state and 54.25 federal beds to balance the budget” in the current fiscal year, Burns said.

A great deal for information is available in the Greeneville Sun.