10.17
On Tuesday October 4th, two trustee prisoners from the Walker County Jail, checked out to the county to do a construction project (possibly at the LaFayette library), acquired a cache of beer and had a little party while on the job. When they returned to the jail that evening, detention employees noticed they smelled of alcohol and administered blood alcohol tests. Neither man was legally drunk, but they did admit to drinking during the day, and as a result lost their trustee status.
We have been told multiple times by library employees that no county prisoners have done work on the site, but the prisoners themselves and county sources have indicated this happened there. Considering the county’s partial funding for LaFayette library renovations it’s a good possibility that this did occur at the library but we’ll step back and say it happened somewhere in LaFayette and leave it at that. The photo below, from the library project, illustrates the signage and statutes in place for a typical prisoner construction site.
According to statements made to Chattanooga media, the inmates were “working in a county government building and were being supervised by a building maintenance worker” employed by the county. Under an agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and Walker County’s general government, the county can check out prisoners whenever they’re needed for work, and while checked out the county is responsible for what they do. In this situation the jail and Sheriff’s Office bear no responsibility for what happened.
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