Muscogee County officials have announced plans to expand the county jail, which frequently has to cope with overcrowding.
Officials have announced plans to seek $131.5 million in bonds to complete a list of projects that includes a new jail tower at a cost of about $31 million.
More jail space will be required with 100 more police officers on the streets and hundreds of inmates left waiting for transfer to the state prison system.
Sheriff John T. Darr says preliminary plans call for adding a tower to house about 600 inmates.
The jail population was 1,161 Wednesday morning, 92 inmates over its current capacity of 1,069. Darr says the number can fluctuate from lows in the 1,100s to a high of 1,260 inmates, which was reached two weeks ago.
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Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, http://www.ledger-enquirer.com
