Possible prison overflow site

The Lawrence County commissioners, along with several officeholders, toured the ORV facility in Franklin Furnace Tuesday afternoon. The site has been the subject of a possible jail move for overflow county prisoners for a few years.

At Tuesday’s commission meeting, Sheriff Jeff Lawless read a letter addressed to the commissioners, stating that he wants the project to work.

“I write you today concerning the proposed jail at the Franklin Furnace ORV facility. As all of you know, I have worked tirelessly on this project for the last two years. Nobody would like to see this project work more than me,” the letter stated. “It is hard on my deputies to make those long road trips two to three times a week to Morrow, Knox and other counties. I fear that they may be involved in a traffic accident on our busy highways and interstates. I also worry that these jails will stop taking prisoners from us in the future.”

Besides the travel of transporting prisoners out of county, Lawless talked about the status of the current jail being outdated, and that although the office is understaffed, his staff has done a great job in being able to keep it in operation despite its shortcomings.

In 2016, the county roughly spent $750,000 in transportation costs sending prisoners to other counties throughout the state. That money would be used for the ORV if it were able to work.

However, with the amount of work that needs to be done to the facility to open, it is unknown if the cost would be about the same as that spent on out of county transportation. If the county were to move ahead on the ORV move, only one of the four pods would be open for the overflow.

Each pod at the ORV holds between 25 and 30 prisoners, though Lawless said he would seek an exemption from the state to possibly double up on prisoners in cells.

Just some of the work needed to be done at the facility includes water to some cells, installing telephones, cameras, Cat 6 wiring, cable, security entry doors, building a visitation area, buying televisions, mattresses, blankets, sheets, towels, sandles, storage bins, gun lockers and more.

Lawless said that if the move were to happen, he would also need 10-12 new corrections officers, but STAR would handle laundry and meals.

“We can do this, but it is going to be expensive. I cannot take any employees from our current facility because their tasks will remain the same. Therefore, I have to hire between 10-12 corrections officers to ensure that we are properly staffed,” Lawless’ letter stated. “I have at least two officers on duty at all times. I have to provide these inmates the same accomodations and rights as in our jail. I have to feed them, provide visitation, laundry, medications healthcare, phone calls, canteen, recreation, and the list goes on and on.”

Lawless also said that although he is strongly for this jail move, he knows the costs involved and does not want to have to lay off any deputies or have any other county office or department’s funding cut.