Groundbreaking Held for New Detention Center
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
On June 7, 2024, Sheriff Carter Weaver joined Georgetown County and state officials and executives from Moseley Architects and M.B. Kahn Construction Co. for a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of a new Georgetown County Detention Center on Browns Ferry Road. 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.
Sheriff 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 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.
“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.
Construction is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed in two years.
