JAIL OVERCROWDING MUST BE ADDRESSED RIGHT NOW

The News Out Of Gibson County Is Scary.

It Also Is Hopeful.

Last week, Gibson County Sheriff Joe Sheppard said that the overcrowding
problem at the county jail was so bad that an area drug task force has
delayed arresting 21 indicted drug offenders. The jail has a multitude of
problems; it is certified to hold 151 inmates but recently has averaged
more than 200 per day. It was cited by a state agency in October for
overcrowding and other problems and warned that it might be decertified.
Such a de-certification could, and most likely would, cost the county a lot
of money.

On top of that, arrested drug offenders are not being placed behind bars!

How could it have gotten so bad?

"I've told them (Tennessee Corrections Institute) for three years that we
were going to do something," Sheppard said last week. "Now, we're going to
have to get around to it."

The good news is that commissioners might finally be getting "around to
it." A resolution last Monday states the commissioners' intent to get plans
and cost estimates for expansion or for a new jail facility. Sheppard and
jail committee chair David Martin were scheduled to travel to Nashville
last week to meet with state officials. More good news.

The resolution passed by a 22-1 vote, with commissioner Keith Steele
casting the lone vote of opposition. Steele's protest vote raised some
valid points: a new jail should have been built at the time of a 1997
expansion and the construction of a state prison is needed to lessen the
burden of state prisoners on the county jail system.

But the reality is that the jail is overcrowded and a de-certification looms.

Gibson commissioners need to make the resolution a reality.