LUDOWICI, Ga. () – Long County’s plans to alleviate its financial difficulties with the operation of a local jail have shifted, as the facility will soon be closing. The area is now expected to be rented out to an external organization.
Staff said they expected the Long County Jail to open September 1 but were informed otherwise just days ago.
The county has announced they are looking into leasing the premises, with the jail staff indicating that an agreement with the Georgia Department of Corrections might already be in place.
“On Wednesday, we were called into the sheriff’s office and informed that, as of August 1, we would no longer have jobs,” explained Lieutenant Stanley Danzey, Assistant Jail Administrator at the Long County Jail.
Danzey said everything changed “in a matter of two days” after he and the other administrator spent months preparing the jail for inmates.
“Finally, I got to administration level. I was Assistant Jail Administrator and six months, it’s gone,” he said.
On Monday, toured the jail with Danzey. He showed us supplies and equipment that had been purchased to outfit the jail, some of which he said can’t be recouped now.
reviewed records of those purchases, totaling out to an anticipated $200,000. Line items included kitchen supplies, medical equipment, inmate uniforms and construction costs.
Danzey pointed the finger at county commissioners for the collapse of the project.
“I hold them accountable. I hold them accountable for me losing my job because they had control of all the money,” he said.
County leaders, though, said they had to make a drastic decision to meet the drastic situation they’re in.
“Our financial situation has worsened. We’re not at financial collapse and we can’t go bankrupt, but it’s a very tough situation right now,” Long County County Manager Chuck Scragg said.
Scragg said that because the county has to pay bonds on the jail already and has a shortage of estimated tax revenue, it would be difficult to turn a profit running the jail themselves.
“Looking at what it would cost us to run that jail, which is about $2.1 million a year, it was more cost-effective to keep our prisoners in other jails and lease this jail for three to five years, get out of this financial situation and then take it back over,” he said.
Scragg also said the county was planning to use a loan to finance the rest of the costs to get the jail up and running, but they’ve taken out at least one already for other costs.
Therefore, he said if the county gets another loan, it won’t come until January. and if the lease option falls through, that’s also when the jail could reopen under County management.
