By the end of this week, authorities will be moving all state inmates currently housed at the Blount County Jail. This comes after County Commissioner Tona Monroe pushed for the move at the state level.
It's an unprecedented move, according to Blount County Sheriff James Berrong.
"Been sheriff for 26 years. Never seen anything like this before,” Sheriff Berrong said.
He said Monroe didn't consider the adverse effects of her action on the jail.
“The effect is we don’t have the staff to run this facility," Berrong said. "We feed 1,600 meals a day with inmate labor. The laundry machines never stop, 24 hours a day with inmate labor.”
He said the county jail will lose $2.3 million in revenue it gets for housing state inmates. Berrong said the move will also impact the county’s budget and the facility’s maintenance.
"We need about 30, minimum of 30 [state inmates], to run this facility," Berrong said. "They cook. They clean. They maintain the building. They do things out in our community, local governments help them, parks and recreation.”
Berrong said he will need to hire up to 20 workers to replace the free labor they got from the inmate. He estimated the new service could cost taxpayers $6-10 million.
“We’ve been calling McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Hardy’s, all the fast food places, to see if they can provide meals for us just to get us by,” he said.
Blount County isn't the only jail impacted by the move.
"Other counties are upset because they’re not taking any of their inmates," Berrong said. "They’ve called once they’ve seen this is going on and asked for bed space, and the state says there is none.”
Monroe claimed that before she took action, county leaders told her the state wouldn't take back its inmates.
"The sheriff admits that we lose money on state inmates," she said. "Now, we are being told that it will cost more money to house less inmates. Only someone wholly unfit for their position would advance such an absurd notion. Truth and justice have finally prevailed. Apparently some aren’t happy about that.”
Former Sheriff's Office Clerk and Budget Manager Homer White said moving state inmates should relieve taxpayers.
“It’s definitely a good move for the Blount County taxpayers," White said. "It’s going to save us a lot of money because the state pays $37.50 to house a prisoner, and it’s costing the taxpayers $43 to house a prisoner, so there’s a $5.50 difference that we’re subsidizing the state prisoners here in Blount County.”
The county commission candidate continued, "“You have all kinds of people in jail that are trustworthy and can be trustees, and they’ll do this work. They would love to get out of the cell and get some fresh air and work in the kitchen or whatever’s needed to be done. You don’t need to hire people out. That jail labor’s free.”
But Berrong said, with an average county jail stay lasting no longer than two weeks, he can't just appoint any inmate to run maintenance.
"We have pretrial detainees that really are not eligible, and these inmates have to be vetted," he said. "We don’t let anybody out of a cell that’s committed a crime against a person or a major felony.”