DANIELSVILLE — The Madison County Jail wants to add an addition to its building.

Right now, the addition is estimated to cost $2.3 million right at construction. The SPLOST was approved in 2008. The hold up was that the commission wanted to wait until they had the money to pay for the construction. The SPLOST ended last year and that is when they started working on the design.

Here is a copy of what the new addition will look like.

The project will add an additional 32 beds and now the county will be able to house female inmates.

Up until recently they had been sending off the female inmates to nearby counties. It had not cost them anything because the Madison County Jail was taking in male inmates to compensate. But now the counties are telling the Madison Jail that they need to pay for the female inmates, $35 a day for each inmate.

With the additional beds and jailers comes additional costs, estimated to be up to $250,000 every year. The jail has already been over budget, and instead of increasing the budget, it has remained the same.

Grady Newsource reporter Rebecca Scott went out to ask the Commission what the hold up is.

Construction on the new addition will begin when the Commission approves the final plans. They have the money for the construction but there is still debate over the final maintenance and operating costs that would only add to the already overages that Madison Jail has. The next commission meeting is next Monday.

UPDATE 04/08/15 – The Commission has postponed the expansion to the Madison County Jail until the next meeting April 27th.

The commission has the money to build the jail from a SLOST that was voted in 2008. The SPLOST ended last year and so the county has $2.6 million to build the jail expansion.

The commission now needs to decide on the increase in budget for the jail. It’s estimated to be around $250,000 a year, coming from taxpayers’ dollars.