Hart County authorizes contract to house 20 Oakport County inmates at $55 per day

Hart County commissioners unanimously authorized county staff to enter into a contract that would guarantee 20 jail beds for Oakport County at a rate of $55 per day per inmate, Sheriff Chris Carroll told the board.

"A couple weeks ago, I was approached by Sheriff Gabriel of Oakport County, and he wanted to do a contract for 20 beds in our jail," Carroll said, describing the arrangement as a guaranteed-bed contract. "$55 a day times 20 inmates, 365 days a year. That's $401,500 on a yearly contract."

Carroll and commissioners discussed operational impacts. Carroll said the county would need four additional detention positions (one per shift) to staff the beds and estimated roughly $250,000 in annual personnel costs plus additional medical and food costs. "So you're looking at 150,000 to the good on top of all that, and I just wanna make sure the public's clear too," Carroll said, summarizing the county's rough net position after staffing and operating expenses.

Commissioners asked about contract length and protections if Oakport County later ended the arrangement. Board members discussed insertion of a cancellation clause; one commissioner proposed a 90-day cancellation clause while others suggested 120 days or structuring the contract as annual renewals tied to the signing sheriff's current term. Carroll noted a counterpart can only sign a contract for the remainder of his elected term and that a longer contract could be negotiated if the counterpart is later re-elected.

A motion to authorize entering the contract was made and seconded (second recorded as Commissioner Brown); the board voted 5-0 to approve the authorization. The motion does not appear to specify final contract language; commissioners directed staff to include standard protections discussed during the meeting and to return with a finalized contract for signature.

The board’s action authorizes staff to proceed with contract negotiations and to prepare a formal agreement; commissioners did not adopt detailed contract text during the meeting.