Staff photo.
The Shelby County Jail is slated for a $27.5 million expansion.
The Shelby County Commission recently awarded Clements Dean Building Co. a $24 million contract for an upcoming jail expansion project.
The total for the entire project is $27.5 million with the engineering and architect fees and some of the ground work that the county already has done, coming in slightly under the $28 million that was budgeted in the fiscal 2023 budget.
According to County Manager Chad Scroggins, this will be the second largest construction project ever done for Shelby County.
“This project will expand some of the capabilities at the Sheriff’s Office, but what it really does is improve safety and give us some new beds for segregation, mental health, and helps us to redo our health care services within the jail,” Scroggins said. “It’s really a quality of service and also a safety to our officers who are in the jail.”
The proposed construction scope includes:
- A third housing pod: a new two-floor housing pod with 200 general population beds, a mechanical level and support space
- Renovation of the medical unit, adding 15 new beds and bringing total capacity to 23 medical beds
- A new segregation unit with 24 beds for inmates who need to be separated from the general population and support space
- A mental health unit with 18 beds and support space
- Renovations and modernizations to control and information technology systems, including retooling the cameras and security system throughout the jail
- Shelby County Sheriff John Samaniego said one of the biggest challenges with incarcerating inmates is mental health issues.
“By having the designated unit within the jail, it will make it easier for us to keep up with them and provide them with the services they need and the security of them,” he said. “They are also retooling a 20-year-old building in addition, and that in itself is very important.”
Commission Chairman Kevin Morris said he appreciated the additional opportunity for employee-centric changes to help the Sheriff’s Office, as these men and women do a lot for the county.
“The bigger thing is to reestablish to those folks inside the jail who work for us that we care about them as well, and I’m glad to see that,” Morris said.
