Screven County Jail Tour: Sheriff Mike Kile reassures families on jail conditions

SCREVEN COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - After a social media post gained attention, several viewers wrote into our newsroom with concerns about Screven County jail’s conditions.

Following several local leads regarding hot water issues, withholding menstrual products, uncooked food, cell doors that don’t lock, and issues with bugs at the jail, we went to see for ourselves and hopefully put some of those concerns at rest.

“It’s not the Marriott, it’s still a jail,” said Sheriff Mike Kile.

The Screven County Jail opened in 2016, and Sheriff Mike Kile said there’s nothing wrong with the jail, it’s just an election year and that’s when complaints ramp up.

“It’s all politics. We have opposition. And I’ve been running, this is the 10th time. Every time we’ve had opposition, jails come up, patrols come up. And it’s just pure politics. And that’s what they’re going on,” said Sheriff Kile.

We went down that list of concerns from the public.

“I don’t know of a rodent problem, period. Roaches come in every once in a while, in boxes and stuff like that. We spray weekly and we don’t have a problem there,” said Sheriff Kile.

As for dirty water concerns the Sheriff said that the social media comments are lying.

“The same water that comes out in this part in the back, it’s the same water up front that we get. That’s a complete fabrication and a lie,” said Sheriff Kile. “There’s no way we can separate the water going back in the back. It comes in from off the highway here into the main and splits up. There’s no way we can cut that water off.”

There are also hot water concerns, alleging inmates have gone without it since July.

“Every once in a while it goes out, we’re without for a day or two,” said Sheriff Kile.

For women’s menstrual products, Sheriff Kile said there is no restriction on inmate access. They get two to three products at a time and can ask for more throughout the day at any point.

“We have female jailers. They go back and check on them and whatever they need, we give for them. Any health thing they need, anything else they need, they get,” said Sheriff Kile.

The inmates are not locked in their cells, there is free roam of that block, in response to concerns about cells not locking.

The area is monitored by guards making their rounds every hour, but also 24/7 surveillance.

“We don’t lock them. They have a free range of the place (their cell block). You know, they walk around. So, all day, all night, they’re kind of open. Within that area,” said Sheriff Kile.

There are two guards currently working for the jail and working with the inmates. Right now there are 37 inmates in the jail, and at its highest point, the jail saw 200.

Sheriff Kile also said more funding would be nice, but it’s not something he’s expecting.

“We get our fair share of the county money. Nobody has enough money ever. Nobody can do enough for these prisoners. Everybody wants funding. We’d like more. We’d like another guard. But, you know, we’ve got 14,000 people in Screven County. We do the very best we can with what we have,” said Sheriff Kile.

Sheriff Kile said he wished no one was here, but that’s not the reality of it.

“They made the option. They made the choice. We don’t like to keep you here. We wish we had nobody in jail. But jail’s been here since time beginning, and they’ll be here forever,” said Sheriff Kile.

He doesn’t want families to worry, as their loved ones are being taken care of. He said it’s no 5-star resort but it’s nowhere near deplorable conditions.

“This is a county jail. It is not the Marriott Hotel. We don’t give curb service. We don’t give room service. It’s the families that expect it, they’re not going to get it.” said Sheriff Kile.

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