The Detention Division allows inmates to assist in the upkeep of the facility as well as providing services to other inmates and the citizens of Whitfield County. This workforce is composed entirely of volunteers and presents many opportunities for inmates to be active and give back to their community. These inmates may perform work functions in the Kitchen, Laundry, Runarounds (Internal Inmate General Labor), or Inmate Work Crew (Outside Inmate General Labor). The inmates who work in these details are all hired through a security and medical background process conducted by Inmate Work Crew Personnel.

The use of inmate labor results in drastic reductions in facility costs as well as reducing the costs of county government. Internal use of inmate labor alone accounts for over 60,000 hours of free labor per year. Outside work details including mowing landscaping and mowing county property as well as providing manual labor for many projects in the community including work on the Miracle Field, cleanup and safety projects at local schools, as well as providing basic maintenance services at the jail, 911 Center, Courthouse, and other locations. The inmate work crew has provided well over 10,000 free man-hours on county projects in 2013 alone, while only utilizing approximately 1,200 man-hours of employee time.

Outside Work Details are conducted on a regular basis, particularly during the Spring, Summer, and early Fall. These details include mowing around government buildings, removing trash from county roads, Graffiti removal, setting up and removing voting booths, and placing flags out for civic events, among other tasks. In the last few years, Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office inmate work crews removed hundreds of thousands of pounds of refuse from county roadways. In addition, the outside Work Crew has assisted the United Way, Boys and Girls Club, the Green House, the Dalton National Guard Armory, Dalton Police Academy, provided labor for food drives, serviced the local schools, and assisted in servicing the Fair Grounds during the past year.

Also falling under the supervision of the Detention Facility is the Central Control Section. In this area is where the public goes to obtain information about any family members who are incarcerated, to get approval for bonds, answering and directing all phone calls coming into the Sheriff’s Office, controlling the security of the Detention Facility by maintaining the control panels which allows persons thru all secured doors in the facility, operations of the Georgia Crime Information Center / National Crime Information Center and to greet the public and to help them in any way possible.