New Tuscaloosa County Jail addition will be fortified with mental health component [Video]

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WBRC) – Work is well underway at the Tuscaloosa County Jail to not only build a new jail, but usher in a new era of mental and psychiatric care.

The new jail annex has been built. Inmates have been transferred to the annex for now. The new jail should be ready by 2026.

Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy says there is no doubt having a jail with a medical and mental health component will make a difference in recidivism based on sheer data alone.

″At any given time may have 35% of our inmates on some type of psycho drugs. If you do the math with that, that means we got 180 people in the facility that’s got some type of mental health condition and this allows us to better treat them,” said Sheriff Abernathy.

In the county jail annex, those inmates suffering from mental health challenges are getting mental …