Groundbreaking date announced for new Warren County Jail

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Warren County Jail has finally been announced.

Following years of questions about when the new jail will be constructed, the Warren County Board of Supervisors has announced ground will be broken on the facility Monday, Sept. 16 at 11:30 a.m.

The new jail is being constructed to replace the current facility, which was built in 1907 and received its last major upgrade in 1977. Conditions in the jail have since been deteriorating.

The new facility would nearly double the current capacity for inmates in the county. The project costs approximately $74 million and will take about two years to complete. That expense will be paid off by the county over a 30-year period.

Warren County Board of Supervisors President and District 5 Supervisor Kelle Barfield said the funds were secured on “excellent terms” due to the county’s good credit rating.

“Portions of the existing jail were built more than 100 years ago,” she added. “At some point, you have to address the situation and prepare for the future, and that’s what this new facility does.”

Earlier this month, Barfield said the new facility will initially hold 240 inmates, with the capacity for future expansion.

“One thing we did to control cost was designing it in such a fashion that additional capacity could be added in future years without paying for full future capacity right away,” she said.

The new jail will feature a pod structure designed to maximize bed capacity within each unit, incorporating both shared and dedicated spaces for inmates. In response to lessons learned from the pandemic, Barfield said the facility will include upgraded medical holding areas and specialized cell spaces to quarantine inmates if needed.

The groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the future site of the jail at 1200 U.S. Highway 80.