Sandy Springs to use second distant jail

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Anyone facing a long-term jail stay after being arrested in Sandy Springs will now end up in one of two lockups in southern Georgia.

The city this week added the Pelham Municipal Jail in Pelham, in the southwestern part of the state, as its backup for long-term inmates. Sandy Springs already keeps detainees for up to three days at Doraville's city jail and sends lawbreakers with longer stays to the Irwin County Jail in Ocilla.

"Several cities use Ocilla, so we wanted to make sure we would have space for those offenders who require a longer confinement," said City Attorney Wendell Willard.

Johns Creek, another new city in northern Fulton County, also uses the Ocilla jail. Outsourcing inmates falls in line with both cities' ideologies. Both cities contract with CH2M Hill, a private Colorado firm, to run most of their daily government operations.

Under the deal with Pelham, which the City Council approved on Tuesday, jail officials from that city would handle transportation of prisoners and routine medical care. Sandy Springs will pay $35 per prisoner per night and also be responsible for specialty medical care.

Willard said Sandy Springs "rarely" has inmates that the city court has sentenced to a full year, the maximum for most misdemeanors. However, some DUI convictions require 30 to 60 days in jail.