Jail Overcrowding Costs Taxpayers

Overcrowded Jails - it’s a topic we’ve told you about for years, but do you know the cost of those extra inmates?
It’s money that’s coming right out of your pocket in the form of tax dollars.
You might be surprised to know it’s at least fifty dollars a day per inmate and that does not include any medicine or medical care they receive. Multiply that by the number of inmates and you’ve got a large sum of money.
The jails administrator says unless things in the community change, it’s an expense that will continue to increase.
News three’s Alice Massimi has more.

It seems no matter how many beds they add they need more.
Chatham County Jail Administrator Colonel McArthur Holmes explains it’s a problem that won’t go away. 
“It’s like the old movie if you build it they will come,” says McArthur. 
A facility that was built to house twelve hundred inmates is now holding close to eighteen hundred at times.
“We have some inmate living cells that were originally designed as one bed so what we have to do is put another bed in there,” explains McArthur. 
Adding temporary living quarters and even placing out cots…the jail is bursting at the seams.
“We have to make adjustments each and every day to make sure we can accommodate the inmate population.”
On any given day they are at least 250 inmates over capacity which forces the staff to be extra vigilant.
Sometimes that means having an extra officer on duty or working with the legal system to release some inmates early…. it’s a tough situation and one Col Holmes does not believe will be solved by continually adding more beds.
So what is the solution?
“If I knew that I would be a millionaire because I could solve all the problems with jails and prisons in the nation,” says Holmes adding, “I think it is going to take everyone getting involved social services, the school, and the home, everybody getting involved to do whatever they can to try and turn this around.”
Something that’s been preached by community leaders for years but looking around at full cells and extra beds - a difference is still miles away.

Not a long term solution for overcrowding—an expansion of the jail was approved in 2006.
It’s part of SPLOST.
The expansion will cost 110-million dollars.
It hit a snag last year when the design firm was federally indicted.
That delayed the project by about three months.