Camden County leaders outline steps to address jail crowding, agree to capacity study before seeking bonds

At a county work session, Camden County commissioners and staff heard that the county’s jail is operating at strain and that financing a replacement or substantial renovation will require a multi-step planning process. Courtney Rogers of Davenport & Company presented financing scenarios and the sheriff’s office and jail administrators detailed block-level overcrowding and infrastructure problems.

Rogers said the March 2025 SPLOST 9 referendum includes $10,000,000 earmarked for the jail and that consultants used a planning project cost of roughly $53 million (deducting $3 million for animal control left a $50 million figure for analysis). Using a 5% planning interest rate, she said a 20-year bond would generate about $3,000,000 in annual debt service while a 30-year amortization would be about $2,500,000 a year. “Twenty years is roughly $3,000,000 a year and 30 years is $2,500,000,” Rogers said, illustrating millage-equivalents that she calculated at roughly 1.35 mills for a 20-year plan and about 1.1 mills for 30 years —…