MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — The Milledgeville Police Department closed the city jail this week. Now, all jail services in the incorporated area will fall to the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office.
Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee and police chief Dray Swicord called the decision "good business" for the county taxpayers. The department leaders said the decision has been a couple years in the making.
"It was really more of a problem for the city than it was for us. We looked at it as an additional work for our people, more people booked in our jail," said Massee.
The city will pay the county $125,000 a year to house inmates. According to Swicord and Massee, it will save the city department $250,000 per year. Swicord said the deal came at the perfect time for his jail that was due for upgrades.
"It was perfect timing as far as our jail is 35 years old and there was maintenance issues that we were obviously going to have to spend money on," Swicord said. "This is not new. Most all cities contract out with the county jails anyway."
The city jail is housed inside the Milledgeville Police Department headquarters. Swicord said it intakes about 1,300 inmates every year. That number will be added to the county Law Enforcement Center's 4,000 annual inmates.
Both law enforcement leaders believe the transition should be smooth because city cops already bring arrested people to the county jail when state law is broken as opposed to more minor city offenses.
"They're very familiar with our system. Our people work closely together. We know each other, so this is not going to be a dramatic change at all," Massee said.
Another concern was inmate health at the city jail. Swicord said because the jail was so old it didn't have any outlets. That made things like CPAP machines hard to manage. The city also didn't have contracted medical staff on hand and hospital bills for inmates were growing costly.
"The jail was so old, we either needed to stay in the business or get out," Swicord said.
Both leaders said the change will be beneficial for the pockets of the departments and the taxpayers paying for them. Both departments are working out the details for municipal cases in the county jail system.