Conditions in the Charles B. Webster Detention Center are so bad, Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree attended the Feb. 7 Augusta Commission meeting to ask for $486,872.90 in emergency funding to address the crisis.
“We are in an emergency situation,” Roundtree said.
According to Roundtree, equipment in both the jail’s kitchen and laundry are old and outdated. The jail personnel can no longer wash clothing and linens, and inmates are having to eat off Styrofoam plates.
Laundry services have been outsourced, but Roundtree says that with 1,100 inmates a day, it is almost impossible for an outside company to keep up with the facility’s needs.
The situation in the kitchen is becoming dire with no working dishwashing system, and Roundtree says he is worried about an outbreak of foodborne pathogens among the inmate population.
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“We’re mixing food for 1,100 inmates by hand in some cases. Right now, we are in desperate need of these supplies due to the fact that our national accreditation is in jeopardy due to these items being in disrepair,” Roundtree said.
Roundtree told commissioners that the facility had suffered two fires due to the faulty equipment and that he feared “unrest” among the inmates over both the food and laundry situation.
District 5 Commissioner Bobby Williams asked the sheriff if there was any money in his budget to pair with emergency funds, and Roundtree responded that he had no emergency funding in his budget.
“I spoke to the administrator yesterday, and she advised me that she has a funding source,” Roundtree said.
That source is the capital allocation fund, an account Williams said he was unaware existed. Such purchases would have been covered under the American Rescue Plan, but the city has spent all of the $84 million it received.
The commission voted unanimously to provide $500,000 in emergency funding from the capital allocation money.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
