WBBJ Exclusive: Take a tour of the Madison County jail
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Madison County jail houses 391 inmates. The problem is the jail was only built to house 303 people.
“We are down way below a five. We are down to the three, maybe four,” Madison County Sheriff John Mehr said. On a scale of 1 to 10, that’s how the sheriff ranked his own facility.
“We don’t have a mold issue, but we do have some facility issues. This facility is 20 years old,” jail administrator Tom Rudder said.
Rudder says the county is in desperate need of a new facility.
So as the county plans to build a new jail, WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News cameras were allowed inside to answer the question: Why is a new multi-million dollar facility needed?
“The employees here have such a hard job. They basically go to jail every day,” Rudder said.
Built in March of 1998, the jail has four pods.
A pod is maximum security. B pod was originally for women, but with the limited space it has turned into a housing space for men and women. C pod holds minimum security. It’s designed to hold 103 inmates but now holds 183, forcing some of the inmates to sleep with a mattress on the floor.
Major plumbing issues plague the facility.
“We had to go down without water. People don’t realize that doesn’t just take away the showers, it also takes away the kitchen. We can’t sanitize anything,” Rudder said.
The kitchen went down for three days. 
“It’s just like the kitchen. We are going to have to do something now because the floor is completely gone,” Sheriff Mehr said.
The jail serves over half a million meals a year and books about 9,000 people every year.
Moving forward, jail officials say the new space is crucial — not just for inmates but for programs and medicine.
“The medical wing is something. You can go and look across the nation. Right now there is a lot of information, places on mental health,” Mehr said.
The sheriff wouldn’t specify how many beds he would like in the new facility or an intended budget but says building a new jail is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.
