OZARK -- Franklin County officials estimate they will be ready to vote at next month's Quorum Court meeting on an action plan to build a new jail to resolve chronic violations of state jail standards in its current lockup.
At a Quorum Court meeting Thursday evening, County Judge Rickey Bowman asked members to help gather information to draw up the plan of action by an Aug. 15 deadline to present to the state Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee for the 5th Judicial District.
The report of the latest jail inspection Nov. 24 said the county "has a number of serious issues and critical deficiencies" and failed to comply with minimum facility standards in the county's 42-year-old jail.
The report said the review committee would meet with Franklin County Sheriff Anthony Boen on June 6, a date Bowman successfully asked state review committee coordinator J. Sterling Penix to push back to Aug. 15.
"At that time, Franklin County will showcase their improvement/compliance plan," the report said. "Failure to produce a serious and deliberate plan will result in a request to close and/or modify jail operations."
Bowman said the jail review committee is requiring the county to find a site for a new jail, hire a consultant to design the jail, commit to hire a bond company for project financing, and determine the source and size of revenue to pay for construction and for maintenance and operation of the new facility.
Quorum Court members didn't say Thursday how they would come up with the money but mentioned other counties used sales taxes to pay for construction and for maintenance and operation expenses.
A 1 percent sales tax in Franklin County generates about $1.8 million a year, Bowman said.
The alternative for not meeting the deadline, Bowman told Quorum Court members, could be closure of the jail and/or reverting it to a 24-hour lockup. Even then, Bowman said, the current jail would not be in compliance for a 24-hour facility.
The 24-hour lockup would allow arrestees to be held in Franklin County for 24 hours. After that, they would have to be housed in a jail in a county Franklin County would contract with to hold its prisoners. Bowman has said it could cost Franklin County around $720,000 a year to house its prisoners in another county.
Operating expenses for the Franklin County jail last year totaled $620,000, according to one county official.
"I can't see how Franklin County can do that financially," he said.
Quorum Court members did not appear to support a 24-hour facility but decided to gather what information they could to gauge the affect it would have on the county.
Quorum Court member Chad Haberer said the court has to be prepared to explain the cost of a new jail versus a 24-hour facility when it tries to educate the public about the need for a new jail.
"We want to be honest with the public and have good numbers for them and be as open as possible, because it's a serious issue, and no one wants to pay taxes," Bowman said.
Boen was not at Thursday's Quorum Court meeting and was not available Friday for comment.
In a lengthy discussion Thursday, Quorum Court members talked about how much and what kind of information the county would have to give the jail review committee to comply with its order.
Lacey Neissl, a member of the court's jail committee, said it recommended the county hire jail builder SouthBuild LLC of Collierville, Tenn. The committee has met with its officials, liked them and believed they were ready to move forward, she said.
Neissl said the SouthBuild team would go to Ozark, meet with the committee, Boen, Bowman and others to work out the county's needs and come up with a jail design and cost estimate.
The Quorum Court appropriated $16,000 in county carry-over funds Thursday to hire SouthBuild. Bowman said the payment would not have to be made until construction started or if voters failed to approve funding for a new jail.
Jail inspection reports issued by the jail review committee have been warning the county for years about the non-compliant conditions in the jail.
In a November 2014 letter to the county, the state review panel coordinator at the time wrote that the jail was unsafe for inmates, staff and the residents of the county.
The sheriff's office has experienced problems recently with inmates in the overcrowded jail.
According to Franklin County Circuit Court records, two men, Robert Ratcliff, 22, and Daniel Troxel, 30, both of Ozark, have been charged with inciting a riot, first-degree terroristic threatening and obstructing governmental operations.
An affidavit by a jail deputy stated that on April 28, a black trusty was walking to his cell when Troxel threw a cup of urine on him from his cell and yelled racial threats. Troxel and Ratcliff reached through the cell bars and tore at the trusty's shirt as he retreated, causing minor injuries.
When the trusty tried to get to his cell a second time, the affidavit said, several inmates in two cells lined up against the bars and chanted racial slurs at him as he passed.
In another case, four men, Andrew Minton, 24, of Clarksville, Andrew Sanders, 31, of Altus, Kirby Edgin-Whitson, 24, of Ozark, and Lester Ballinger, 28, of Denning, were charged with impairing operations of a vital public facility and first-degree criminal mischief for tearing out a security camera from a jail cell.
The affidavit said Ballinger had covered the camera so another inmate could rip it down.
Ballinger was being held in the jail awaiting trial in September on a first-degree murder charge.
State Desk on 06/11/2016