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Last updated on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
(BEDFORD) - The Lawrence County Sheriff Craig presented the Commissioners with his department’s annual report Tuesday morning.
Included in the report are the top ten reasons for which people were arrested in the county. That list included:
The Lawrence County Jail located at 1420 I Street opened in 1990 and could house 88 inmates. The jail was double-bunked in 1992 increasing the capacity to 168 inmates.
The jail has a disciplinary segregation cell block with the capacity to house 4 inmates, 4 medical segregation cells, a padded cell that was completely renovated in Sept. 2007 and a holding tank with a rated capacity of 12 inmates.
From January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011 there were 1,803 inmates processed into the jail, with an average of 5 inmates booked into the jail daily. There were 1,793 inmates released from the jail during the same period.
The average daily population for 2011 was 135, with a low point of 104 in March and a high point of 159 in August.
There were no in-custody deaths in the Jail in 2011, and there were no escapes or escape attempts.
In 2011 only on juvenile was held at the jail, after being waived into adult court.
The jail does offer programs and services for inmates some of those include: GED classes, a literacy program, and college correspondence classes. The programs are supervised by Dr. Kay Collins and are offered twice a week.
Religious services are also available and are offered several times a week. Volunteers, who conduct and overseeing the services are Jeff Smith, Mike Holsapple and Nellie Chastain.
In addition to the weekly services, Jeff Smith and Mike Holsapple serve as volunteer chaplains, providing counseling in crisis situations.
Qualifying inmates can also participate in the Pathways to Recovery program, under the direction of Jim Crane. This program covers numerous life skills areas, including education, finances and substance abuse counseling.
Healthcare services at the jail are provided through a contract agreement with Advanced Correctional Healthcare. The doctor comes to the jail weekly and is on call 24 hours a day. There is a full-time nurse and a part-time nurse on staff.
There were several upgrades made to the jail in 2011. The exterior door built to the outside recreation room, to serve as an evacuation point, in the vent that there is a catastrophic event in the jail that requires inmates to be removed from the building by other than conventional means. In June, the jail began contracting with Turnkey Corrections to provide commissary services for the jail. As a result, several hours of staff time each week have been reclaimed from commissary duties, allowing staff to focus on other tasks.
The jail does need additional storage space for the paperwork that is generated and required by state law to keep.
The jail staff is also doing several repairs. Because the inmate count is down now, cells are being repaired and painted. They also replaced cell valve that ended saving the county thousands of dollars in electric and water charges. The year-to-year savings for water was $25,697.00 and $32,317.00 on electricity, with a total savings for $59,014.00. Savings on plumbing parts and smoke alarm replacements was an estimated $1,000.00.
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