The Tennessee Corrections Institute was created to provide support services for local penal systems in Tennessee. Its staff trains correctional employees at the local level in addition to providing research and evaluation services to governmental agencies. It is also responsible for the inspection and certification of local correction facilities.

There has been much talk and speculation about the local jail situation. In the past few months, citizens have heard talk of spending $30 million, then reduced to $15 million for an addition to the Dickson County Jail.

A motion to allow a private company to operate a corrections facility in this county was voted down in January 2005 by the Dickson County Commission.

Short-term inmates of a non-violent nature could be housed in a dormitory-style facility with a maximum of 64 beds with 25 feet of clear floor space per inmate and a ceiling height of not less than eight feet as prescribed by the rules of the Tennessee Corrections Institute.

Not only would this approach allow more room for high security risks to be housed in single, secure cells or multiple occupancy cells, but it would allow those convicted of DUI and other minor offenses to serve their time on weekends without having to schedule their incarceration.

The county would need separate facilities for male and female prisoners. All prisoners would have to be classified by sex, charge, medical condition, mental status, violence, behavior and prior criminal behavior.

Taxpayers of this and other counties are fed up with the continual increases in sales, wheel and property taxes. With figures being batted around the $15 million range for additional jail facilities, it is high time that local politicians examine all available options to reduce the expense to the taxpayers of their county.

I believe that most people have long ago lost hope that prisons and other correctional facilities would rehabilitate those incarcerated in correctional institutions.

Taxpayers can only hope that county officials can find a way to operate correctional facilities in the respective counties as cheaply and efficiently as possible.

Why should local county commissions not give every idea available every consideration? It is the least they can do in trying to decrease, or just contain the cost of government. Our elected officials owe taxpayers at least that much.

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