Steady progress made on Sullivan County Jail expansion

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) —In 2022, officials broke ground on an expansion project for the Sullivan County Jail. After two years of work, the expansion is making progress.

The expansion was approved based on the need to combat overcrowding within the jail, an issue Chief Jail Administrator Lee Carswell said has been discussed within the county for years.

“In 2014, the State of Tennessee put us under a plan of action,” said Carswell. “Which pretty much required the county to come up with a plan to fix the problem of overpopulation. We started the talks about building this extension onto the current jail in 2017.”

Carswell says the jail’s current maximum capacity is 614 inmates but averages around 935 inmates a month. While the expansion will help house the current inmates, a federal mandate prevents them from keeping numbers down indefinitely.

“We can’t refuse anybody,” said Carswell. “We take inmates and prisoners from the Tennessee Department of Corrections when they have court, from [Tennessee Highway Patrol], from Kingsport and Bristol Police Department. So if they bring them, we have to take them.”

This mandate is why the jail introduced its rehabilitation programs, including its Pre-Trail release program .

“We’re trying to get people back out,” said Carswell. “Maybe somebody that can’t make bond, get them back out, and they’re monitored by our pre-trial division. We have about 300 individuals out on pre-trial at this time, which has helped reduce our population by at least 300.”

The expansion is set to add around 560 beds to the jail’s capacity. Carswell said this addition will not only help with overcrowding but also ensure the safety of the inmates and correction officers.

“There’s a lot of assaults,” said Carswell. “There’s a lot of bullying, there’s a lot of bad things happening. Once we get into this new facility, we’ll be able to separate the two inmates [into] a pod, and we can control the violence a lot more, which makes our job easier. This is considered a best practice design that makes it safer for inmate and safer for the staff member.”

Once the construction is complete, Carswell said the next focus will be on staffing.

“It’s going to take a significant increase in staff to maintain and operate,” said Carswell. “And we’re working with the commission and the mayor on that currently.”

Carswell said they plan to finish the construction by the spring of 2025. The new staff will then undergo a four —to six-month training period.

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