Jail expansion listed in 2018 SPLOST

Rabun County citizens will soon have the option to weigh in on the 2018 special-purpose local-option sales tax projects.

At the regularly scheduled Rabun County Board of Commissioners meeting, a hot topic amongst board members was the Rabun County Detention Center (RCDC) and whether or not it could stand for expansion. 

According to Rabun County Sheriff Chad Nichols, the current max capacity to house inmates at the RCDC is a total of 96 beds – a number which is below neighboring county Habersham who can hold nearly double the number of inmates that Rabun County can. Furthermore, the Habersham County Detention Center generates revenue from renting out beds to other jails who don’t have the space to hold inmates.

Nichols said the RCDC is in desperate need of an expansion as they are operating on full capacity 99 percent of the time. Often, the county is losing money from deputies having to transport inmates to out of county jails in order to house them.

According to Debra Jacobs, County Clerk/CFO, the proposed expansion in the 2018 SPLOST would total $4.8 million for adding an additional two pods onto the current building at the detention center.

RCDC Administrator Captain Chris Bartolomey mentioned that currently, there is not enough room to have a separate medical pod: Meaning, when inmates are sick, they must share cells and heighten the chance to contaminate other inmates with sickness.

Additionally, the female inmates are all housed within the same pod. Unlike the men who are separated based on high and low-risk offenders, the females all share the same common areas which often leads to a higher chance of altercations occurring according to Bartolomey.

The two additional pods would grant the RCDC 16-18 more beds as well as a medical unit to keep sick inmates separate.