MACON, Ga. — Bibb County commissioners will consider earmarking $2 million for new locks and other improvements at the Bibb County jail on Tuesday, six months to the day that four inmates escaped from the facility on Oct. 16, 2023, according to an agenda from the Bibb County Clerk of Commission.
But the funds are not coming from taxpayers. It's coming from a pool of money called the commissary fund.
"Somebody wants to buy a chocolate bar, or a honey bun or something like that, then the profit that goes off of that goes into the commissary fund," Bibb County Sheriff David Davis told us in November.
In other words, the commission would be moving funds around from the commissary fund and directing it toward improving jail conditions. The agenda says it would go towards "additional magnetic locks and other improvements to the jail."
Nearly six months ago, conditions at the Bibb County jail were thrust into the spotlight after four Bibb County inmates escaped from the Law Enforcement Center back in October.
“We have a 43-year-old jail. This happened in the oldest part of the jail… the most rundown part of the jail,” Davis said at a press conference the afternoon after the escape. “I’ve been talking about how we need a new jail, we need a new jail – and we have a jail that is falling down on us, that is breaking down. ”
That included the lack of functioning locks in many cells.
That night, the inmates escaped from a dayroom window in the B300 block — outside of their cells — and had for hours used chisels to chip away at the wall, making a hole large enough for the four escapees to jump out from.
After the escape, Davis said they were investigating how they got out from their cells, but he noted that the lack of functioning locks has been an outstanding issue.
"Typically, when they are supposed to be in bed, the dayrooms are not locked," Davis said at the time. "Some of the doors are... where they are not able to be locked. And typically that is not an issue."
Back in November, Davis told 13WMAZ that they had previously fixed 300 locks with $3 million allocated in April 2023 after the stabbing death of deputy Christopher Knight at the hands of an inmate.
Records show the funds were used on jail repairs. However, in the time since the funding was approved, inmates have found new ways to break the locks.
Because of that, the commission approved allocating another $1 million from the commissary fund for jail upgrades in November. That included addressing locks, too.
"We're having to weld those, actually weld those plates in place so that they can't be tampered with. So, that takes some time, but the cost to do that is certainly not as much," Davis said.
He also weighed other issues like purchasing extra cameras and sensors.
The commission will be held at the government center in downtown Macon. Pre-commission will start at 5 p.m. and the actual commission will start at 6 p.m.