By Mary Drier
Staff Writer
CARO — Finally, the newly added jail beds at the Tuscola County Jail can now be used.
“The final inspection was done on a jail project to add five beds. We have had to send inmates out to other jails due to overcrowding,” said Sheriff Lee Teschendorf noting the additional beds will help ease overcrowding and save the taxpayer hundreds of dollars each day by being able to house more inmates locally.
After waiting several weeks of waiting, the state fire marshal completed the inspection this week. Now, the inmates who have been housed in other jails during the renovation can be relocated back to Tuscola.
Overcrowding has been an issue on and off for the last several years at the jail with inmates having to be housed in other county jails at a cost of $30 per day per inmate, plus the cost of transporting them.
Earlier this year the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) change the amount of square feet required to house an inmate. That change allowed for 11 more beds to be added with some remodeling and without requiring additional staff for supervision.
Initially, six additional beds were created this summer with minimal remodeling. When that project was done, it was decided to add the other five beds; but to do that, an additional shower and some other changes were needed. It took a couple of months to completed that work.
“That work has been done for sometime,” said Undersheriff Glen Skrent. “All that was needed to use those beds was the state fire marshal to give us to okay.”
At last count, there were six inmates housed in other counties who will now be able to be relocated back to Tuscola to fill those beds.
It’s estimated having 11 more beds will save about $90,000 a year in housing out inmates and transportation costs.
A closet area was remodeled into showers because two showers in each cell was needed to meet state code, explained Undersheriff Glen Skrent.
With the new beds, cell C-1 will house 18 inmates and cell C-2 will house 17 inmates. Instead of 86 there are now 97 beds in the jail.
The original section of the jail was built in 1965, and remodeled several times since then. The last addition was built in 1996, and was to be the first phase of a three-phase project to add several more beds to the jail, but that wasn’t done because of cost and there are no other grants available to help fund the work.
Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.