Georgetown County broke ground on the site of a new 85,000-square-foot detention center today. Expected to open in February 2027, the new jail will be located near the existing facility on Browns Ferry Road, which opened in March 1996.
The new jail will be 85,800 square feet – an addition of about 15,000 square feet compared to the current facility. It will have 256 beds, including 51 in a women’s wing, with the potential for up to 500 beds. The project has a $65 million price tag and also includes construction of two other structures on the site: a 3,205-square-foot morgue and a 4,535-square-foot building for the Sheriff’s Re-entry program, which focuses on recidivism and preparing inmates for success after their release from jail.
“This groundbreaking signals a new era for public safety in Georgetown County,” said County Council Chairman Louis Morant. “A lot of thought and discussion have gone into the purpose and design of this facility. We want to look beyond a sole purpose of incarceration. We want to look at rehabilitation, at transforming those who are incarcerated into productive citizens of our community. Thanks to the Sheriff’s Re-entry program and other programs implemented by the Sheriff’s Department, we are already accomplishing this. This facility will give us the space for enhancement of these programs.”
The Sheriff’s Re-entry program was launched in 2007 with a focus of giving qualifying inmates the skills needed to make a fresh start once their sentences have been served and avoid the pitfalls that lead so many back to jail. It has a nearly 100% success rate.
This is only the sixth jail to be constructed in the county’s long history since the first jail opened in 1769 on the corner of Broad and Duke Streets. That building also served as the courthouse and billeting for British soldiers.
Sheriff Carter Weaver briefly reviewed the history of the county’s jails during his remarks at the groundbreaking, working his way to present day and the future facility.
“This will be a state-of-the-art facility that addresses not only the needs of the inmates, but the safety and work environment that our corrections officers need,” Weaver said. “The facility has been designed to stand the test of time so we can hopefully get back to the trend of operating such a facility for next to a century.”
The county’s first jail lasted until 1845 and the second lasted from then until the 1950s.
“We’ve planned, we’ve reviewed, we've redrawn, we've added, we've taken away. We've done all of that as part of this process, and now, finally, we’re at this point,” said County Administrator Angela Christian. “We’re going to have a top-notch facility that will serve Georgetown County citizens for years to come. This could not be done without Team Georgetown. There are lots of folks that are behind the scenes that are present and will be here every day to make this happen. We are so excited and we thank you for these hours that you're going to spend in the hot sun making sure that this facility will stand the test of time.”
Todd Davis, vice president of Mosely Architects, the firm selected to design the jail, recalled having the first conversations about the facility all the way back in 2009 with Sheriff Lane Cribb. Bret Estridge, executive vice president of M.B. Kahn, construction manager for the project also spoke about the years of planning that have gone into the project and its complexity.
The jail will sit on a 50-acre public safety campus, about half of which will be dedicated to the current project. A new Emergency Operations Center and 911 center may also eventually be built there.