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The "Gray Bar Hotel" in Blount County is not glamorous, just ask the inmates sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

Built to house 350 inmates and with an average nighttime population of 337, there's not much room to spare at the Blount County Jail.

Blount County Sheriff's Office administrator Jeff French said that in the short-run, Sheriff James Berrong is considering buying 50 stack-a-bunks.

When interviewed in January, French said there were 286 men and 64 females at the facility.

There aren't enough men's beds, French said. The men aren't allowed to just use beds in the women's section of the jail.

"They have to be separated by sight and sound."

Two situations that always accompany jail overcrowding are safety issues and the threat of law suits, he said.

French said corrections officers must be constantly aware of their surroundings when entering crowded areas.

"We try to get them the best training they can get. They're all certified through the Tennessee Corrections Institute," he said. "We're looking at hiring more."

But qualified people aren't lined up at the Sheriff's Office door seeking a job guarding prisoners.

"Corrections personnel have the toughest job in the sheriff's office. They're locked up eight hours a day," French said.

Berrong said it is almost a full-time job just keeping at full staff, especially in jail.

"You tell them it's a tough job," Berrong said of how he prepares new employees. "That's why we have a high rate of turnover."

When the facility was completed in 1999, planners said jail personnel would book 5,000 people a year in 10 years. Four years after it was opened, corrections officers book 7,000 annually. Increases in population have a direct effect on jail populations, Berrong said.

"Anytime you have a population increase, a certain percentage is not going to be law abiding."

Choices, consequences

French said two routes can be taken to deal with overcrowding: cut back on federal and state prisoners or obtain federal money and build onto the jail.

The jail took in $1.2 million for housing state prisoners in 2002. The facility collected $1.37 million for keeping federal prisoners in that same year. This money all goes into the county general fund.

According to French, this reflected a payment of about $35 a day for state prisoners and $45 a day for federal prisoners.

"It's whatever the County Commission and the people of the county set for a goal as far as where they want to be," he said.

Considering options

The solution is to cut back on the number of federal and state inmates and leave additional room for county inmates or to look at expanding through assistance from the U.S. Marshals and the federal government, he said.

"If the (federal and state) money goes away, it's obviously going to be a burden to the taxpayer," French said. "That money goes to the general fund and keeps the tax burden low."

"Our ultimate goal is to get enough revenue to where the county would not be burdened with the operating expenses of having a jail," French said.

"We're at a crossroads as far as knowing which way they want us to go," he said." We want to be good stewards. There are pros and cons to each decision."

The Tennessee Department of Correction on Feb. 10 proposed cutting the amount it pays local jails to house state prisoners. The department also proposed taking other measures to cuts its operation by almost $30 million and make up an estimated $610 million state budget shortfall.

The proposed change would place a cap on the $35 a day paid for housing prisoners serving one- to six-year sentences.

Painful measures

In Knox County, Director of Finance John Werner said the Knox County Sheriff's Office has grown accustomed to the $35 a day given per inmate. It actually costs $83.77 a day to house an inmate at the jail, he said.

"We are unhappy the taxpayers of Knox County have to subsidize for doing the state's work. Fortunately, we have a sheriff who concentrates on minimizing costs," Werner said.

"We're used to that," he said of the $35 stipend.

According to Werner, the state may also take some shared tax revenues owed to the counties in order to balance the budget.

"It could be very painful," Werner said.

Berrong said that while the state only pays $35 per state prisoner, it costs Blount County $47 a day to house the state prisoners.

"We are already losing $12 a day on their care," he said. "We are currently losing $468,888 a year on state prisoners."

"The state is putting the burden back on us," Berrong said. "They are shirking the cost of building a prison."

State responsibility

The sheriff said the state Department of Correction needs to build its own facilities.

If state prisoners were put in state prisons, this would free up space not used by local inmates for federal prisoners at a higher per diem, he said. This would lower the corrections officer-to-prisoner ratio.

Berrong said his personnel wouldn't be faced with an overcrowding situation if the state would pick up their own prisoners.

"If the state does lower the per diem rate, I hope the TDOC commissioner has more than a three-bedroom house," Berrong said.

Duren Cheek of The Tennessean, contributed to this story.