Antioch residents are still concerned about having more inmates living in their community, even after fending off an expansion of the nearby Metro jail earlier this year. Community groups and Metro Council members have summoned Sheriff Daron Hall to explain his plans at the Global Mall on Monday night.
"Since the decision was made not to relocate and expand the Harding Place Facility, there have been growing concerns among neighbors about housing inmates during the transition," states a letter from Antioch-area council members to Sheriff Hall, asking for a list of questions to be answered.
More: Read the letter to Sheriff Hall
The plan was to shut down the Criminal Justice Center downtown and move those 1,300 beds and all booking operations out to the Southeast complex on Harding Place, nearly doubling the number of inmates on the site. That didn’t fly with the neighbors, who aired concerns about safety and the proliferation of bail bond companies. They also said they felt like community members weren't included in the decision-making process.
So the Metro Council instead voted to use the more than $100 million to rehab the aging downtown jail. Now the problem is where to relocate inmates during the remodel period. Residents near the Harding Place jail have asked why the downtown lockup can’t just be rehabbed one floor at a time.
Sheriff Hall says some will have to go to the Southeast facility, though not until next spring or summer.
“Make no bones about it, all of our beds are going to have to be used during the construction phase because you can’t build while the inmates live [downtown],” Hall says.
Contrary to rumors among Metro Council members, Hall says his department has not built any additional fencing around the Southeast complex. And he says the highest-risk offenders and the booking facility will remain downtown.
"Nothing has changed since the night that they voted," he says. "There's no reason to get people all stirred up."
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