Franklin County Grand Jury Urges Hiring More ADA’s, Jail Expansion

The Franklin County Grand Jury is asking to meet with the Franklin County Board of Commissioners sometime within the next 45 days to discuss a number of what they believe are urgent issues.

The Grand Jury met last week and submitted a list of recommendations.

At the top of the Grand Jury’s list is the hiring of an additional investigator and an additional assistant district attorney for the DA’s office.

A similar recommendation was made last October by the Grand Jury, which also stressed the importance of adding personnel to the DA’s office.

Last fall, DA Parks White asked Franklin and Hart counties to consider taking some of the burden off his ADA’s by transferring misdemeanor cases to State Court.

“They’re not working 40-hour work weeks. They’re working more than that; often in court sometimes until 9p at night,” White explained. “They can only devote five hours to each case, max. And anytime above that, they have to take time away from other cases. You just can’t handle any felony with five hours. You need preparation time, such as getting and receiving warrants, getting and taking depositions, getting the evidence from the Sheriff’s office, the investigative agencies reviewing that evidence, etc.”

Last week’s Grand Jury recommended the County fund an additional ADA to handle only misdemeanor cases.

Also listed in the Grand Jury presentments is another recommendation to expand the Franklin County Detention Center.

It has been a year and a half since the Board of Commissioners has had any discussions in open meetings regarding the jail expansion project.

In their recommendation last week the Grand Jury wrote, “We strongly recommend expanding the jail be made a priority. This has been ignored for far too long to the point of being scandalous.”

In November 2014, Commissioners voted to put part of the $2.5-million dollar project out to bid, but nothing more has ever been said about it in subsequent meetings.

Other recommendations from this Grand Jury include, provide climate-controlled space for court records in the Clerk of Court’s office, update the data systems in the Victim Services office, and give cost-of-living raises to employees in the DA’s office, the detention center, and to law enforcement officers.