JONESBORO — With overcrowding and a litany of infrastructure problems at the Clayton County Jail, one of Sheriff Levon Allen’s proposals is building a temporary modular jail.
Allen pitched the idea to the Clayton County Board of Commissioners at its Tuesday, Sept. 12 work session.
There is room on Clayton County Jail property to build extensions to the jail but the price tag would be about $300 million, Allen said.
The cost of a temporary modular jail? About $6.5 million.
“We need relief and we need something now,” Allen told commissioners.
The mobile jail would take up about 27 parking spaces and would have 264 beds, 27 toilets, and 25 showers.
Allen said the trailers can be constructed and brought to Clayton County in sixth months and would require the hiring of eight additional corrections officers.
The mobile jail would house only minimum security inmates — freeing up space in the jail for violent offenders.
Another advantage to the trailers is they can be repurposed by the county once permanent additions to the jail are completed, Allen said.
At the end of August, the jail had some 1,800 inmates while the total capacity is 1,563.
Out of the current inmates, about 800 are violent offenders — including nearly 200 for murder.
The mobile jail proposal was just one of many proposals and updates Allen provided to commissioners during the work session.
The updates and proposals included body cams, watches that would monitor and track inmates, several infrastructure and security improvements, uniforms, new washers and dryers, and other improvements.
The total price tag is nearly $19.5 million and some of that could possibly be paid for from various grants.
Commissioners asked Allen to prioritize the list and present it again to them.
“We need to fix it and it takes all of us to fix this jail,” Allen said.
Allen was first appointed…
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