The new Coffee County Jail… Photo by Barry West
The Coffee County Sheriff’s Dept. will host an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new jail on Saturday and the public is invited to attend.
The $22 million, 400-bed facility is located at 3176 Hillsboro Highway. The open house will take place from 1-5 p.m.
Inside the new jail visitors will find separate quarters for male and female inmates. Also the facility has a roughly 1,200-square-foot medical wing inside the new jail that includes numerous examination rooms, a restroom and a quarantine facility for inmates with contagious illnesses.
Each cell at the new jail will house two inmates.
In other jail news, the Coffee County Purchasing Commission has approved to outsource the new jail’s healthcare operations to Quality Correctional Health Care (QCHC) starting next month, at a cost of $456,000 per year.
The annual cost includes all medical care as well as mental health services, dental work up to $12,500 per year and most pharmaceutical drugs, with the exception of HIV and other specialty medications.
Inmate medical costs for the current fiscal year ending June 30 are expected to end up somewhere between $1.2 and $1.5 million.
Sheriff Steve Graves said in an interview on WMSR last month that he expects jail medical costs will come down substantially at the new facility. The two-man cell system should make things safer, cleaner, and healthier for everyone including jail staff.
