Liberty County Sheriff ’s Office laid out its vision for a new jail to county commissioners.

Chief Deputy Al Hagan told commissioners the current facility, with a 20-year-old tower and a tower approaching 30 years old, needs replacing. A new jail, Hagan told commissioners, “is much needed.”

“When we build this time,” he said, “we will make sure we build for the future.”

Commissioners agreed to reform the jail committee and explore the issue in more detail.

Sheriff ’s office representatives also acknowledged a new jail comes with a hefty price tag — approaching $100 million.

Hagan said a new jail will be “the largest capital project this county has ever taken on.”

The current jail has capacity for 276 inmates. With the use of plastic bunk beds, the jail can accommodate up to 305 prisoners.

“Thankfully we haven’t done that lately,” said Maj.Sascha Krumnow, the jail administrator, “but we have done that in the past.”

But as the county has grown — and projections call for even more population growth in the coming years — the jail too will have to expand, sheriff ’s office representatives said. An optimal new jail would be 665 total beds, with the ability to expand to accommodate 1,300 inmates through additional pods. Hagan said they are looking for 500–550 beds in a new jail, with space for 100–150 more.

The current towers are aging and are out-ofdate, Hagan said. Tower 1 is past its end of service life range, Krumnow said, and the ratio of toilets and showers is too low for Georgia jail standards. The current condition of the jail also leaves the county open to lawsuits under the Eighth Amendment, Krumnow warned.

“We’re holding it together with tape and band-aids,” Hagan said. “We need it not just for the inmates but for the safety of the staff.”

The sheriff ’s office asked for a Georgia Sheriffs Association assessment of the jail in 2023.

“He told me to get a bulldozer, take it all down and start over,” Krumnow said.

“If there was a need for a new jail,” said Paul Okeson, president of Garmong Construction, “you fit the criteria, in my opinion.”

The rise in mental health cases

Sheriff ’s office leaders also cited a rise in mental health cases, and a lack of space and means to treat them.

“We are the de facto mental health facility,” Hagan said.

The current jail has four medical beds for the entire facility, Krumnow pointed out.

“That incorporates mental health and everyday medical issues,” he said.

Krumnow added that at any given time, the jail averages about 25 inmates who are critically mentally ill or in crisis.

“About 60% have some sort of mental issues,” he said. “When they get to Liberty County Jail, that crisis does not subside. They don’t get better; they get worse.”

In the meantime, jail officials have to wait for a bed to become available at Georgia Regional Hospital in Savannah. Krumnow said a new jail would include a “significant increase in medical beds, which would allow us to provide some services.”

Sheriff ’s officials hope to include two padded special observation cells with a new jail.

Other spaces needed

Part of the new jail will include room for rehabilitation and educational programs, Chief Hagan and Sheriff Will Bowman pointed out.

“Right now, we have nothing for rehabilitation,” Chief Hagan said.

The sheriff ’s office has approached local technical colleges about offering programs to inmates, but there isn’t space at the current jail to allow for those.

“The current set up is not conducive to any kind of educational program or assistance at all,” Krumnow said.

Commissioner Justin Frasier said he understood the need for a new jail and stressed the importance of both education and economic development to curtail the number of people committing crimes.

“They’re getting educated in there. I guarantee you that,” he said. “But it’s not the kind of education that is going to get them back into the workforce.”

The current jail also has no capacity for inmates who are considered to be transgender.

“My duty is to protect the inmates in my care,” Krumnow said. “The only way I can handle transgender is to put them in solitary confinement.”

A new jail also would incorporate other sheriff ’s office functions that currently are housed elsewhere, Krumnow said. The sheriff would maintain his office at the Judicial Center, and there would be a courtroom for virtual hearings.

“We spend a lot of money each month for rent,” Krumnow said.

A new jail, Krumnow added, would be designed with education, rehabilitation and future growth in mind, and would be designed for efficiency of movement of inmates.

Housing Liberty County’s inmates in other counties’ facilities also would be costly, he said, running about $12,000 a day.

As of last week, there were 38 inmates from Bryan County, which pays to have them at the Liberty County Jail, and some on hold for the U.S. Marshals Service.

An inmate, on hold in the jail after a conviction in a Chatham County federal court, killed himself at the jail last September. Krumnow discovered a similar method was used several years earlier by a female inmate who killed herself at the jail. The way the bunks are mounted to the walls gives inmates the chance to tie off a towel and hang themselves.

The deaths are a result of the jail’s poor design, Krumnow told commissioners, and the sheriff ’s office and the county could be found “deliberately indifferent” if it happens again.

“We need something safe,” Krumnow said. “Our lawsuit claims have gone down, much less the filings. I call it good leadership and good oversight. At the same time, we need something that is going to be safe for everyone.”

Though the jail’s capacity would double, Krumnow said the staff needed would not necessarily double.

“What I’ve learned over the last couple of years is that is not the case,” he said. “We’re going to need more staff, but it is not double. I estimate it would be much less than double.”

A new jail likely will be made up of prefabricated steel cells, with a control unit having a 360-degree view of the pod. The vast majority of the current jail would be demolished, Krumnow said. It also is not cost effective to renovate and rehab the two existing towers, he added. Renovating the original tower could cost $14-15 million and the county would gain very little in return.

“The need is there,” Krumnow said. “This isn’t a matter of the Liberty County Sheriff ’s Office wanting a new jail. We have to have one.”