Hamilton County, TN - The Hamilton County Jail recently participated in a national accreditation audit performed by the American Correctional Association and achieved 100% compliance with all (153) American Correctional Association standards and best practices for jails. For more than 145 years, the American Correctional Association has been the driving force in establishing national correctional policies and advocating safe, humane and effective correctional operations. Today, ACA is the world-wide authority on correctional policies and standards.

The accreditation process establishes clear goals and objectives critical to the provision of safe, constitutional, effective and humane correctional programs and services. Accreditation addresses services, programs, and operations essential to good correctional practice, including safety, security, order, care, programming, justice, administration and management.

Through accreditation, an agency is able to provide an environment that safeguards the life, health, and safety of the public, staff and inmates. The Hamilton County Jail began its pursuit for accreditation a few years ago and our success can be accredited directly to our people, their, efforts and commitment to excellence. In order to maintain the accreditation, HCSO Jail supervision and personnel must continuously adhere to the expectations of standards and best practices for jails, including but not limited to, submitting annual reports to the Commission on Accreditation and participating in ACA re-accreditation audits every three years.

Jail administrators will attend the ACA panel hearing in August to be awarded the national accreditation from the American Correctional Association. The Hamilton County Jail is now one of only (8) jails in the State of Tennessee to achieve national accreditation from the American Correctional Association. This is quite an accomplishment for a facility over 30 years old, and is a testament to the dedication and professionalism of the staff who work at the Hamilton County Jail.

“I am very pleased with the level of commitment and determination shown by our Corrections personnel to achieve this prestigious accreditation,” stated Sheriff Jim Hammond. “The Hamilton County Jail is now one of only eight jail operations in Tennessee to receive such accreditation from the American Correctional Association,” he further noted.

Jail Supervision will be available today from 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm for interviews.

Please contact Matt Lea for an appointment during this time via email at jlea@hcsheriff.gov.

Interviews will be conducted at the Hamilton County Jail.