Bedford County sheriff's report: jail fees, DeKalb inmates and inmate blanket donations

At a Bedford County meeting, Bill (Sheriff's Office representative) reported jail revenues, the county—urrently housing inmates from DeKalb County and a project in which female inmates crocheted blankets to donate to nursing homes and Tennessee Oncology.

The sheriff's office reported specific receipts: "On the sheriff fees, we took in $38.17 and 10¢. On a comp fee, it was $1.88. Phone was $33,154.97," Bill said. He also reported that cash bonds were down to $23,000 for the month of April and that the county has been housing some inmates from DeKalb County.

Bill said DeKalb paid the county for housing inmates for January and February, totaling "$25,784.00." He told officials that work crews were shut down for two weeks, which reduced inmate work activity, and that only inmates in the MRT program continued community-service tasks. As part of that service, he said inmates were taught crocheting and made lap blankets intended "to be donated back to some of the nursing home[s], the Tennessee Oncology for the cancer patients," which he said would be "put good use." Bill added, "I mean, I wish y'all could see their faces, but it's awesome."

A volunteer instructor said the instruction came from "various churches and friends," and that the volunteers and instructors were "honored to have them be a part of this." Bill said volunteers are central to jail programming: "We have over a hundred and something volunteers that come into our jail, every week and and they provide services like this to teach them how to do these things."

County meeting leadership closed the sheriff's report after Bill finished and moved to the Emergency Management Agency report. No motions or votes were taken on the items discussed in the sheriff's report.

Details on who precisely will receive the blankets, whether the county will track costs or labor credits for the crocheting, and the precise status of the work crews were not specified during the report.