Opposition

to Fayette County's plans for a $60 million jail

and judicial complex is beginning to surface.

"I

just think that that area could be used in a much

more useful way for the community," said

Denise Fair, a resident who opposes plans to

build the complex on 62 acres between Lee Street

and Jimmie Mayfield Boulevard in Fayetteville.

The

county is currently studying funding options for

adding onto the current jail to increase its

capacity from around 85 to about 300 prisoners,

and to build a new court facility and sheriff's

office. The plan includes space for future

expansion of the jail as well, and for a new

county administration building a decade or so

down the road.

The

expansion also includes space to divide

"maximum security" prisoners from those

accused of lesser crimes. Currently, the only way

to do that is to keep the serious criminals in

cells and house lesser offenders in common areas.

"We're

trying to rejuvenate life downtown," said

Fair. "The people that they're going to

bring into the community will not help

that."

Fair

said she and other opponents are requesting time

on the County Commission agenda, either Sept. 9

or Sept. 23 to address their concerns.

Expanding

the county jail not only will bring more

prisoners into the downtown area, but also more

family members, said Fair, adding that she fears

a general deterioration of the downtown area.

"I've

talked to [downtown area residents] who are very

upset about it," she added.

She

also is upset about the possible loss of the

Dorsey house, a historic home on Long Street that

has been purchased, along with four others, to

provide more room for the jail expansion and new

courthouse.

Historical

groups have asked the county to consider having

gthe house moved and preserved rather than

tearing it down, but Fair said that's not good

enough. "If you move it, it will lose much

of its historical value," she said.

Fair

said she believes people are just beginning to

learn about the jail plans, and that as they do

opposition will mount.

Part

of the newly exanded jail, when it is completed,

will be a maximum security facility that will

hold prisoners accused of violent crimes while

they await trial, and for convicted felons

awaiting transport to state prisons.

As

those facts begin to sink in, people will be

angry, Fair predicted. "They just look at

that jail and they just think it's a jail for

speeders and drunk drivers," she said.

She

and other opponents will be pushing county

officials to find a new site somewhere far away

from the center of Fayetteville, she added.

That's

not likely, said county Commissioner Greg Dunn, a

member of the commission's committee that is

planning the details of the jail project.

"We

have to have our courthouse in the county

seat," he said, "and it makes sense to

colocate the jail with the courthouse.

"I

can understand that nobody wants a jail near

them, but it's there already," he added.

Dunn

said he is concerned that some opponents of the

jail project may have the false impression that a

state prison is planned. "It's not a state

prison," he said. "There's a percentage

of state prisoners who are there while they're

awaiting transport or awaiting trial, but they're

not brought here from somewhere else... they're

just people who are in trouble in this

county."

Sheriff's

Maj. Robert Glaze, director of the jail,

confirmed that the facility houses numerous state

prisoners awaiting transport, but said the stay

for such prisoners is usually brief. The state

must pay a per diem rate for prisoners awaiting

transport longer than 15 days. "You can bet

they're going to move them as soon as there's an

opportunity to get them out of here," he

said.

State

prisoners normally make up less than 10 percent

of the jail's population, he said. The rest are

convicted of local county or city law violations,

which carry a maximum sentence of 12 months. If a

person receives two consecutive 12-month

sentences, he or she could stay as long as two

years, he said, but the average stay is 13 days

or less.

The

daily population of Fayette's jail is currently

more than double its designed capacity, and

failure to increase the size of the jail will

result in the county being forced by the federal

government to build a new jail, or federal courts

will order the release of large numbers of

prisoners, Dunn said.

"I

am sympathetic to [opponents], but there's not

much we can do now except build the safest jail

that we can," he said.

As

for Fair's contention that the jail will detract

from downtown revitalization efforts, Dunn said

county officials are working to make the complex

as aesthetically pleasing as possible, including

establishing space for buffers and saving as many

trees as possible.

"We're

not going to have something ugly looking out on

the street," he said.

Fair

also expressed concern for the safety of children

in several nearby schools if prisoners should

escape. "There are three elementary schools

close by," she said.

But

Dunn said Fayette County's Sheriff's Department

has never had an escape from its jail, and the

new jail will have increased security. "The

jail has been there all along," he said.

"I guess people have just now discovered

that it's there."

Dunn

said he is expecting more opposition, but moving

the proposed jail to a different site won't

change that. "Then the residents on that

side of the county wouldn't like it very

much," he said.

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