DAVIDSON COUNTY, Tenn. - It's a problem officials deal with time and time again, overcrowded jails with too many inmates and too little space, but in Davidson County officials said the exact opposite is true.
In fact, there have so much extra space, they're renting it out.
Sheriff Daron Hall said it's not a sudden dip, instead arrests have been steadily declining for the past four years. That's the same time they started the controversial 287G program.
There are almost 700 cells in Davidson County Jail System that haven't housed an inmate for months.
"Usually after Thanksgiving, first of the year our numbers typically drop," said Lawanda Page the administrator for one of the county's correctional facilities.
But it's not the season, or the cold weather which can bring a drop in crime, it's a trend Sheriff Daron Hall's been seeing for a few years.
"What we know is the arrests numbers are down bringing people in the jail system is down significantly some 5,000 from the year before and it's the lowest we've had in the past four years," said Sheriff Daron Hall.
And it was four years ago that Hall signed Davidson County on to the 287G program.
They now deport any arrestee in the country illegally. So far, 8,000 illegal immigrants have been sent home. Hall said many of them would end up in one of the now empty cells.
"What happens is you've taken 8,000 people out of the arrest pool and who have by the way, the first year we did the program the majority had been arrested more than one time so they were likely to re offend," said Hall.
It costs Davidson County taxpayers $65 a day to house one single inmate and with more than 600 empty beds the county is saving around $300,000 a week. It's the only way Hall said the department's been able to handle $2.2 million in recent cuts.
"We are now below budget and below capacity because of 287G," said Hall.
And the extra space is up for rent to neighboring overcrowded counties and the U.S. Marshal's office.
"The taxpayers of Nashville have funded and built these institutions the capital money is taxpayers money, it doesn't make send in the long run to keep those empty," said Hall.
Statistics show that only one percent of those deported on the 287G program in Davidson County have actually returned to America and been arrested again.
The 287G program has been in effect since April 2007.
