The first phase of a $16.5 million expansion project at the Greene County Detention Center was recently completed.
The expansion added 432 beds and about 75,000 SF to the jail, which will bring the total number of beds to 488 when the entire project is completed, said Dave Tierney, project manager of Greene County Jail Construction Office in Paragould.
Inmates are expected to be transferred to the expanded section of the jail by the middle of August, Tierney said.
Once the inmates are moved, work on the second phase will begin. The second phase calls for renovating the older section of the jail into office space and creating an area for a work release program for nonviolent offenders, he said.
The work release program will allow inmates to go to work but immediately report back to the jail after their shift is done to spend the night in jail, Tierney said. “So he keeps his job,” he said.
The second phase is expected to be finished by the end of the year and will give the jail 100,000 SF.
The expansion was needed because the jail has been overcrowded for the last several years, said Greene County Judge Jerry Shipman.
To pay for the jail expansion, in 2011 voters approved a 0.75 percent sales tax that was split between operating the facility and paying the construction costs. The portion that is earmarked for the construction costs is expected to sunset in eight years, while an 0.375 percent sales tax will remain in place to operate the facility.
The general contractor was Olympus Construction Inc. of Jonesboro, and the architect was HMN Architects Inc. of Overland Park, Kansas.
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