County council to review new jail proposal

The County Council is about to take a second look at a proposal to build a new Spartanburg County jail in the parking lot of the existing jail and courthouse. Council members will review the topic Wednesday at a special meeting called to discuss proposed jail sites and providing temporary housing for prisoners. The meeting starts at 11:30 a.m. at the county Administrative Building.

County officials and their architects have inspected at least three proposed sites for a new jail. They have declined, however, to identify the locations because they say it might drive up the cost of acquiring the land. Preliminary estimates place the cost of the new jail, including land acquisition, at $16.8 million.

The proposal to build in the parking lot was widely discussed when county officials began to consider a new jail, but the location was passed over in a consultant's recommendation. The consultant said it would require the county to build a more costly high-rise jail.

All of the sites under consideration are within about two miles of the existing jail, officials say.

County Administrator Roland Windham said architects from McMillan and Satterfield of Spartanburg and Henningson, Durham and Richardson of Dallas were asked to reconsider the parking lot site to present all options to the council Wednesday. Most of the discussion Wednesday will center on providing temporary cell space to alleviate crowding in the existing jail.

State corrections standards set the maximum capacity of the jail at 82 inmates, but the county's average daily population is more than double that.

Architects evaluated several options to provide additional cell space until a new jail can be constructed. County officials say it will take about three years to build a new jail, once they commit to it. Among the options being considered is using an existing county building to provide dormitory-type space for minimum-security inmates. Among the sites being considered for the temporary cells is the county warehouse across Daniel Morgan Avenue from the existing jail, the former Sullivan Hardware Building.

Discussion of the temporary jail space also will include a site selection for a permanent jail since one of the options includes incorporating the temporary quarters into the county's long-term jail plans, Windham said. He is unsure whether the council will make a decision Wednesday or take the architect's report under advisement.