Preliminary Plans for Work Release Center Unveiled

The Franklin County Sheriff’s office continues to work on plans for developing a work release center at the Franklin County Detention Center in Carnesville.

At their work session last week, the Board of Commissioners heard a presentation by Franklin County Sheriff Stevie Thomas and Tom Wright of Wright, Mitchell & Associates Architects.

For the past several years, Thomas and Wright have been collaborating on a plan to add the extra work release building, which would also include a separate area for female prisoners and transitional inmates awaiting a move to a state prison.

Thomas told the board, the County has outgrown the 20-year old jail facility and the addition is needed.

“When this facility (detention center) was built 20 years ago for $3-million, it was built to hold 75 people,” Thomas told the board. “Now we’re having to plan 20 years ahead and we’re looking at adding 96 more beds.”

Thomas said right now he’s housing 15-18 prisoners at the Stephens County Jail in Toccoa due a lack of space in Franklin County.  That, he said is costing the county $675 a day, and he said, he expects it to get worse in the coming years.

Wright showed commissioners photos of other prison projects his company has worked on.  Under the plan being developed now, Wright said the new work release center would have 24 beds for work release prisoners, 24 for jail trustys, 20 new beds for female inmates, and space to add 24 more beds if needed.

“Each cell in each pod comes with two beds, a toilet and shower,” Wright said as he showed commissioners photos of previous jail projects. “They are non-destructable. The cost of them going in, the flexibility and maintenance is minimal. You just can’t tear them up.”

The new facility would be controlled by two guards per shift, which Wright said would help cut down on the Sheriff’s staffing needs.

Cost to build the new center would be about $3.5 million, Thomas said, and would come largely from SPLOST funds.

Commissioner Jeff Jacques asked if that amount could be reduced using state prison workers to build the jail, noting such a crew built the Franklin County Recreation Department building.  However, Wright said the State has cut back on that program because of budget constraints.

“Their whole process changed because of all the cuts in State government,” he said. “Anything that would cost more than a half-million dollars would be a major project for them. They don’t do anything that’s metal so the only thing we would be able to use them (state prison workers) on is the concrete slab or the concrete block.”

Wright said they also do any mechanical systems. 

So far, commissioners have not signed off on any design and no timeline has been set for when the project would begin.