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New Hawkins jail expected to open next month
ROGERSVILLE — The funding is now in place for the new Hawkins County Jail and Justice Center to open, but that’s not expected to happen this month.
Sheriff Roger Christian said Wednesday the opening will probably be well within November simply because Hawkins County Circuit Court is in session throughout October with an unusually busy docket.
But even if there was no court this month, the sheriff couldn’t give a definite opening date because certain aspects of the jail construction aren’t completed yet.
“The last official completion date should have been this week,” Christian said. “It’s not. It seems like there’s still quite a bit of work to be done. They’re putting in the security system, and they can’t splice wire, so some of it they have to pull quite a long way.
“It just seems like it’s moving slower and slower.”
The 2009-10 county budget approved earlier this week included a 9.5 cent property tax hike — 8.5 cents of which will be used to pay for 20 additional jailers to man the new 232-bed jail.
Christian said that will allow for seven jailers on duty per shift.
Information about the potential for 20 new jailer positions was released to the public earlier this year, and since then the sheriff’s office has received approximately 100 applications for the 20 new jobs.
Christian said his jail supervisor is sorting through those applications and will be scheduling interviews in the near future.
A company will be contracted to move the courtrooms, clerk’s offices and jail, and Christian said that company plans to move them all at the same time.
Inmates will be utilized in a limited capacity to help with the move, Christian added.
Hawkins County Mayor Crockett Lee told the Times-News Wednesday there will be an open house scheduled for the public to view the new $15 million Justice Center and jail before it opens.
Aside from the electronic work remaining in the jail, there are a few details left to complete in the courtrooms as well, Lee said.
One of the bigger items is installation of the electronic equipment used by court reporters.
Lee said he too doesn’t anticipate the Justice Center to open before the end of October.
“Moving is going to be a big job,” Lee said. “We know what we’ve got ahead of us. We’re going to have some help brought in to do part of it, and we’ll use some inmates if we can. But when you’re talking about moving juvenile court and Holly Jaynes (in sessions and circuit court), there’s a lot of stuff there.”
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the first ceremonial methhead is thrown through the ribbon on the front door, thereby officially christening the jail.
Jesco White | 10/8/2009 - 3:34 PM
------------------------------------------HAHAHAHAHA!! LMAO
the first ceremonial methhead is thrown through the ribbon on the front door, thereby officially christening the jail.
How do you christen a new jail?
LOL gift shop!
A gift shop is not a bad idea!
Will the convicted inmates be used to move all the confidential and sealed files from the juvenile court?
The facade design looks quite similar to one of their nearby elementary schools.
So it was $15 million total to build with everything included? What was the original estimate? And how much more did it cost to build by trying to retrofit everything in that KMart building than it would have cost to just build from scratch. Retrofitting old buildings for things they were never intended for is never less expensive, and only logically done in cases where there is some historical value to the property.
Looks a bit like MeadowView, doesn't it?
Well that "jail" appears nicer than most schools and shopping centers.