JOHN COFFELTEditor

While Coffee County’s jail inmate population is currently on the rise, Sheriff Chad Partin said it does not represent an uptick in crime.

During the Sept. 21 Law Enforcement Committee meeting, Partin said the jail population typically runs 350-360 inmates during weekdays, climbing to at or above 400 during the weekend.

With 400 beds, Partin said jail numbers are not currently a serious issue, but that the situation needs to be monitored. State regulators discourage inmates housed without a bed.

“I’m not in panic mode, we are starting to get back to normal numbers,” Partin said. “We were way down during the COVID-19 time, but now the courts are really moving.”

Partin said that with growth in the area comes growth in the jail, while municipal police departments and Tennessee Highway Patrol are better staffed and making more arrests.

Partin said following the meeting that a discussion regarding a new addition to the jail would come

only after a constantly high number in the jail over a long period of time.

“I don’t see that conversation anytime soon,” he said. “We have other options to do before that conversation is triggered.”

Maintenance issues found at jail

The annual Tennessee Corrections Institute jail inspection revealed a few issues at the Coffee County Jail, resulting in a punch list to resolve before a re-inspection is held within 60 days.

Sheriff Partin said the issues included logging issues of persons in the kitchen, a technical issue in booking and a water leak related to the HVAC units on the building’s roof.

The units’ PVC “P-traps” have deteriorated in the sun, and the expelled condensation puddled up and flowed into the units into the ductwork into the building.

“The part that had me highly concerned was in our walk-in freezer,” Partin said. “We had a lot of water in our walk-in freezer.”

Partin said the problem was corrected, but in the process, a problem with the units’ air filter was discovered.

The Sheriff Department was under the assumption that a service agreement was in place to handle HVAC maintenance, while the county maintenance department thought the jail staff did the changing of filters.

Partin said that the TRANE energy savings program does not cover the unit maintenance.

This was the first time TCI has had to do a follow-up inspection at the jail, since Partin has been sheriff.

“They gave us good remarks on how clean our jail was, and that’s a main thing, being healthy,” he said.

The jail is approaching it 10 year anniversary, and with that will likely come additional maintenance issues in addition to the larger construction issues that have plagued the building since is construction in 2014.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.