Addie McCluskey
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga Metro Jail is scheduled to reopen soon, following nearly two years of mold remediation that left the facility uninhabitable for local inmates and forced the county to house them in other facilities across the region.
In an announcement on Feb. 20th, the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office said a shipment of beds and blankets had arrived, and the final phase of construction is underway as parts for the cells’ food tray doors were delivered and are awaiting installation. This marks the last steps before the facility can resume normal operations.
“Hopefully, in the next week or two, they should have that done, and we’ll do our part as far as searching the jail and then getting the inmates back in there,” said Sheriff Mark Harrell. “It shouldn’t take more than two days to get them in, but we are hoping the Department of Corrections lets us use their buses again, so it would take a lot less time.”
With over 200 inmates on the roster for Autauga County, not all inmates will be returned to the local jail, which has room for only 138 beds. The limited capacity means the sheriff’s office will still have to make difficult decisions about where certain inmates will be housed.
“More than likely, we will have to put what we call ‘boats’ inside the cells, which is a mattress that sits on the floor,” said Harrell. “That way, instead of having two to a cell, we can put three to a cell.”
Even with the additional mattresses, the jail still would not have enough room to house every inmate.
“We would still be over capacity,” said Harrell. “We will still have to utilize another jail facility to house some of the inmates because there’s just no space for them, and it would be inhumane for us to make them sleep directly on the floor.”
Harrell also mentioned that the jail’s top floor could accommodate another 138 inmates. He referred to the top floor as a shell or unfinished section that was never fully built out when the facility was originally constructed.
“It’s going to cost a lot of money to build that out, but we could house federal and state inmates in a couple of the pods and make money back,” said Harrell. “With roughly $50 a day, it would pay for itself in a couple of years.”
Harrell said the reopening marks a major step forward for the county after the lengthy closure, and he remains hopeful that additional improvements will be made in the future.
