Berkeley could seek jail bids soon

MONCKS CORNER — A 200-bed expansion of Berkeley County's overcrowded jail could be advertised for bids this summer.

The Hill-Finklea Detention Center, once projected to need 400 beds in 2012, has an average daily population of 410 prisoners, Dennis Ashley of DA Architects told the Chamber of Commerce during a Thursday morning breakfast meeting.

With a maximum capacity of 154, a lot of prisoners end up bunking on the floor, Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said.

The addition of 200 beds would be the first of a proposed three-phase plan that would cost a total of $8.5 million and would eventually expand capacity to 1,200 inmates at the jail on California Avenue. That would be adequate for the next 15 years, Ashley said.

County Supervisor Dan Davis wants to use 29 percent of the 1-cent local option sales tax revenue to pay for the jail expansion and other projects, which would put the county on a "pay-as-you-go basis" versus borrowing. By law, the county has to use at least 71 percent toward tax credits.

Davis' proposal would require changing an old resolution that returned 100 percent of the tax revenue to the public in the form of property tax credits. The issue will come before the county council within the next couple of months, Davis said.

DeWitt, who was "trying to get the jail sold" Thursday, said that if residents don't want inmates back on the streets, the county has to have a facility large enough to hold them.