Roswell City Council signs deal for police use of Alpharetta Jail

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell Police and inmates will no longer need to make the lengthy drive to the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta following an agreement that allows the department to house inmates at the Alpharetta Jail.

At a March 27 City Council meeting, the City of Roswell approved a contract with the City of Alpharetta and Fulton County to use the Alpharetta Jail, also known as the Fulton County North Annex Jail on Old Milton Parkway. The jail is owned by Alpharetta and operated by the Fulton County Sherriff’s Office.

Roswell will pay a $60 processing fee for every inmate booked into the facility and an additional $60 daily holding fee for every inmate. The costs will total about $250,000 a year and $50,000 for the remainder of 2023.

The city will also share utility and maintenance costs with Alpharetta.

Roswell officials said the agreement has been “years in the making.” The city operated its own jail until it closed in 2017.

City police then used the Alpharetta Jail to book inmates until it closed in 2020 due to COVID-19 and staffing issues. The jail remained closed for years, and at that time Roswell officers’ only option was the Fulton County Jail on Rice Street in Atlanta.

“If we drive down to Rice Street, it takes us out of our city for a long time,” Roswell Chief of Police James Conroy said.

The department performed a study to gauge how their transport times have changed over the years. In 2018, Roswell Police made 1,496 arrests and had an average transport time of 89 minutes.

That number climbed over the years until 2021, when city police made 584 arrests and had an average transport time of over three hours.

“You can see the impact that had on the number of arrests as well as the time, the frustration for the officers’ morale,” Conroy said.

The chief said his officers often must calculate their trips to prepare for Atlanta traffic, knowing that they will be out of commission for hours.

He said his officers also had to change procedures to fit the Rice Street facility, which did not “honor” certain practices they used at the Alpharetta Jail.

Conroy said the department explored many options before setline on the Alpharetta Jail agreement, like the possibility of having neighboring cities open the jail alone. Conroy also looked at using Smyrna’s city jail for local charges, but the city could not handle Roswell’s inmate capacity.

With dwindling options and growing need, Conroy and the city settled on an agreement to use the Alpharetta Jail.

“This is the best deal available at the time,” Conroy said.

City Councilwoman and Public Safety Liaison Sarah Beeson said the change will improve the quality of life in Roswell.

“Another part of that [agreement] was the ability to enforce our local laws as well,” Beeson said.

The department has not been able to enforce municipal ordinances on the same level while using the Rice Street facility because inmates cannot be held at the Atlanta jail on local violations.

Conroy said if somebody was arrested for driving under the influence now, they would have to be processed through Fulton County State Court. Under the Alpharetta Jail agreement, they would be processed through Roswell Municipal Court and get a trial much faster.

The police chief said the agreement will allow municipal court to handle numerous bench warrants the city has not yet enforced for violations like speeding tickets.

“We have had discussions with the judge about having an amnesty period where people are able to come in and take care of that without automatically going to jail,” Conroy said.

The Roswell Police Department has signed the agreement and submitted it to Fulton County, where it awaits formal approval and signatures.

Once signed, Roswell will be a part of the 10-year contract, with a 90-day period to back out of the if needed.

“If for some reason we determined at a later date that it’s not the best and highest use of Roswell taxpayers’ money or it’s not the best deal for our officers, we can always put in that 90-day notice or just not use that jail,” Beeson said.