Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold says that we're almost among the two per cent of jails in the nation that are considered mega-jails.
Arnold told WGNS News . . .
The sheriff explained, "There are nearly 3,000 local jails around the county holding fewer than 50 inmates. However, 2 per cent are mega-jails with over 1,000 prisoners."
Arnold said that the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center now has just over 800 inmates, but the capacity is 950. This takes Rutherford County back to issues it faced in the early 1980's when the jail population exceeded the capacity of the old West Main Street facility and a federal lawsuit and mandate force the building of a larger one-story facility at 940 New Salem Highway. That longterm solution lasted only a few years, until a massive 9 story facility was constructed in the mid 1990's.
As a sidenote, the two largest jails are those for Los Angeles County as well as New York City. When you look at data, the inmate population of four states amounts to one-third of the total prisoners in the United States. Those states are California, Florida, Georgia and Texas.