GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The County Jail has been at or beyond capacity every day since February, and Sheriff Michelle Cook says it’s not the result of COVID-19 but instead, is the result of the current facility no longer capable of keeping up with the county’s growth and subsequent increases in crime.

When Cook became the sheriff, the capacity of the large jail located in Green Cove Springs was already at 80%. The sheriff before her, Darryl Daniels, said on multiple occasions the jail’s capacity could not keep up, as did his predecessor. Cook, like those before her, is hoping the Board of County Commissioners’ 2021-22 budget gives CCSO the money it needs to expand the jail.

“We’ve explored every avenue we have but there is no single answer...to fixing it or stopping the capacity issue,” Cook said during a special BCC meeting held on Aug. 12. “At this point, we need a jail extension. We’ve been talking about this actively since the beginning of this year and exploring the opportunities and options out there, and after much discussion with experts, our staff and the county, we believe it’s financially and most feasible to expand our current footprint.”

Cook said on any given day, the jail exceeds its capacity by 20 to 50 inmates, which presents multiple problems –and even more so in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cook, however, praised her team for working hard to navigate around capacity issues, which has also seen the jail keep its COVID-19 numbers amongst inmates at just a dozen.

Cook said it’s easy to write these capacity problems off as a result of court case delays and COVID-19, but she said that’s not the case at all. Her team talks daily with the rest of the jail staff and she said it’s simply the reality of the county and its explosive growth.

“To give you a point of reference, one thing we look at is shipping some of our inmates off to other [jails],” Cook said.

“The challenge is that the other facilities themselves are either at capacity or don’t have the legally-required staffing levels to house inmates. Putnam County can take 25 of our inmates and that costs $45,000 per month and they are by far the cheapest in the region. Other counties are about double that price for 25 inmates per month.”

She said CCSO thought the pandemic would lead to fewer inmates, but that this hasn’t been the case. They were at capacity in February and six months later. Today they often are as many as 50 over its maximum limit. She said if you extrapolate from that month where the jail might be six months from now and even further into the future, things don’t look great.

“I would like to commend jail staff because with everything going on, we have to pay the medical bills of sick inmates and even with the capacity issue and all the pressures of what these guys have had to put up with, they’ve done a really nice job of keeping the facility clean and taking care of the inmates in our control and our staff. There is a lot of pride within our staff and the job they do.”

As for where the jail might expand, Cook said the Northwest corner would be the ideal place. Such an expansion would likely cost millions, although Cook didn’t explicitly state how much. The price would likely come after a formal bidding process the county goes through with all county-based construction.

One thing is clear however: if capacity numbers are any indication, CCSO is desperately in need of a jail expansion. Whether that happens, though, will be up to the BCC.

“We have to make a decision and move on something because it’s going to get very unsafe for staff and inmates,” Cook said.