GDC and Jisfic brief senators on multi‑facility locking‑control upgrades and modular unit schedule

Officials from the Georgia Department of Corrections and Jisfic told the appropriations subcommittee they are executing a staged program to replace aging locking controls across multiple facilities and to commission modular units to add bed capacity.

Jisfic and agency staff explained the retrofit is engineering intensive: each retrofit door requires site surveys, detailed shop drawings, and sometimes custom-engineered lock assemblies because older door frames and offsets do not accept off‑the‑shelf parts. Staff said fabricated lock assemblies are being delivered in pallets and that the project schedule staggers installations so deliveries, fabrication and the Tiger installation teams keep projects moving without outpacing production.

The department outlined a modular‑unit timeline: monthly commissioning of one facility over several months (January—April sequence cited) with two to three weeks of staff training preceding inmate moves. If supply and staffing follow the schedule, officials said they expect the key modular projects to be populated by early summer.

Committee members asked about procurement timelines, bid windows and contractor qualifications. Staff described a bid and job‑walk process for contractors and said that, given prequalified task-order firms, bid-to‑award can be compressed but the full retrofit process remains constrained by engineering, fabrication lead times and site conditions.