Athens Clarke County Jail

Location:  Athens, Georgia
Client:  The Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County
Architect:  Rosser International, Inc
Size:  220,000 SF

The Athens Clarke County Jail Expansion project consisted of renovation of the existing facility and a 120,000 square foot addition.  Due to the nature of the project and the magnitude of its scope, we made careful attention to security during the construction planning and scheduling process.  McKnight Construction worked hard to ensure that jail operations were not impacted during any phase of the construction process and took care to completely separate construction and secure areas.

The new jail was designed to include a seven pod housing area, administration areas, and support facilities with state of the art security monitoring system.  Security consists of all new electric locking controls, speakers, video visitation, and watch towers.  New video screens allow for minimal movement during visiting hours, thus increasing security and decreasing the number of staff required.  McKnight built a new support facility that included a large kitchen, laundry, medical, and dental, allowing a lot of these activities to occur in-house as opposed to elsewhere.  Finally, a conveyor belt and complete booking system were designed and installed to streamline the inmate intake process.  The old jail facility was renovated as a training facility and updated two housing pods.  The entire facility is LEED certified.