Sheriff responds to jail criticisms
He agrees that Silverdale is the most dangerous 25 acres in our area and explains why
UPDATE: District Attorney response to Sheriff Hammond’s press conference
The statement deals with the Sheriff saying that Pinkston’s decision on the Collegedale arrest investigation as a “slap in the face.”
“It was the Chattanooga Clergy for Justice that made that request in a letter to me, saying “based on a review of HCSO current use of force policies and Coty Wamp’s biased public statements in support of law enforcement, we feel that the HCSO cannot complete an unbiased investigation of the incident.” So I honored their concerns by withdrawing my request for the HCSO to investigate that traffic stop, and include it with my request for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate that incident, along with the Silverdale Detention Center.”
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CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond addressed criticisms from the District Attorney and others over his department’s control of prisoners at the Silverdale Detention Center.
“The statement that resonated with me the most was the dangerousness of that 25 acres of land that is out there that we refer to as Silverdale. Let me make it clear…. it IS dangerous.”
He offered this “show and tell.”
He gave some facts and figures to explain why.
— There are 1100 inmates there and some are “the baddest of the bad.”
— The $20 million expansion should be completed by Christmas, will “take a lot of the pressure off in terms of how we house those inmates.”
— There will be a new expansion plan in 2023 for more holding cells
— They only had 6 months notice to prepare to take over and consolidate the jails at Silverdale
— They started off under-staffed and are now 70 officers short. “you say, just hire more. But you’ve got to have money to hire them and then you gotta have people who want to take them, plus you’ve got the ones who say ‘I’m not doing this anymore.'”
The Sheriff says pay is a definite issue for keeping corrections officers but he says there is another roadblock to hiring qualified people.
Hammond says he tries “to hire officers that have a passion for protecting the innocent first and that would be, first of all, themselves. We always tell them… listen, the first thing you’ve got to do when you leave the house in the morning is look in the mirror and say to yourself ‘I will come home to my family.’ That’s becoming more and more a problem for law enforcement. And therefore you are finding more officers who would like to be career officers but they say I can’t deal with this anymore.”
He made the case that Money is the source and solution to many of the issues.
“Silverdale is a big problem that needs a lot of money put into it.”
And you’ll see that in his next budget request.
One example is the $6 million in new tech, including cameras, alarm systems, fence perimeter, body scanners like at airports for both prisoners and officers but it will not be online for another full year.
The Sheriff does not take exception to the District Attorney’s claims of how dangerous Silverdale is.
In fact, he says it is a necessary evil.
“I would much rather have those 1100 people locked up on that 25 acres and it be the most dangerous acres in this city than have them running through your neighborhood.. and everybody else’s neighborhood. Because most of these people when they are locked up here, when they get out on the street, they’re going to recidivate.”
Sheriff Hammond doesn’t even object to the D-A asking the Department of Justice to look into jail operations.
He welcomes it (even though he doesn’t think they have time to get very involved).
But he does take offense that DA Pinkston does not think his office is fit to investigate the Collegedale arrest case.
“I took it as a little bit of a slap in the face that the allegation was… in the Collegedale case, which we have just concluded our investigation, that now the D-A has no confidence in us and wants to turn even that away from that over to the DOJ. I’m personally offended by that.”
