Grayson County Detention Center expansion project successfully complete

Grayson County, Ky. (WBKO) - Although COVID-19 delayed many events and projects, the Grayson County Detention Center is now finally complete after being in the works for several years.

Jailer Jason Woosley said the project is important to the community, “the expansion is very important to the citizens here and the community because we’re financially supported by the community.”

When asked how COVID-19 affected the project, Woosley said, “mainly for the construction side of it, it restricted us a little bit on who can enter the construction site. Of course, everybody had to wear masks and sanitize and all that, but it did slow down the delivery of products and construction materials that we needed to complete some of the jobs and so that was part of why we have went over our deadline on completion and plus rain delays which we expected.”

The project had a price tag of $14-million.

“We’re one of the few if maybe not the only jail that does not operate off a county tax, jail tax, or revenue from the county citizens, and we house federal inmates to make that possible from several different agencies,” said Jailer Woosley.

The expansion is mainly aimed at female inmates, and will also include a new state-of-the-art control console.

“It’s 199 beds total, in addition to what we currently have, and it’s mainly for female inmates, we currently have roughly 50 inmates, so we’re going to add on about 150 more inmates, so hopefully it will either be federal or state inmates, says Woosley.”

Jailer Woosley also adds, “and we appreciate everything that everyone does to assist us in making this facility one of the best in the state.”

The jail will be inspected on Thursday, they hope after that they can begin moving some of the female inmates in their current location into the new facility.

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