Maintenance supervisor James Bailey shows how an interior wall moves inside the kitchen of the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center. The wall is being fixed as part of the kitchen repairs.
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Fees paid for filing lawsuits in Rutherford County will fund about $50,000 in repairs to the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center jail kitchen, said Sheriff Robert F. Arnold.
The repairs were mandated after the kitchen failed an inspection by the Tennessee Corrections Institute.
TCI addressed the issues of tiling, a moving interior wall, rust and lack of maintenance on the kitchen.
"The state is pretty much telling us what we have to do," Arnold said. "It's a shame it's been let go" but the jail and sheriff's office had other priorities in the past.
Arnold expects the repairs to be completed in two months.
When opened 15 years ago, the jail kitchen served about 400 inmates. Now the population is about 800 inmates daily.
While repairs are made, the food contractor at the Rutherford County Correctional Work Center is providing meals. The jail serves meals at 91 cents per day with the contractor charging $1.08 per day. The difference will be paid from the jail budget.
To help save money, the jail maintenance staff and inmates are working with contractors to repair the kitchen. Inmates removed the old tile floors and will help paint.
The sheriff is proposing an expansion and the purchase of new equipment for the jail to Mayor Ernest Burgess and the Rutherford County Commission. He hopes the cost will be paid through the litigation fees as well.
"We are putting a Band-aid on it until the County Commission will spend the money to renovate the facility and get it to the size this facility was built for," Arnold said. |
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