Old Nassau County Detention Center

In the 1970s, Nassau County, Florida was mostly monotonous piney woods north of Jacksonville’s urban sprawl. It’s pulpwood country and trucks and trains loaded with pine logs rumble along and on SR A1A through Yulee. In this unlikely place, just off Interstate 95 was “one of the finest county jails in the Southeast,” according to state prison inspector Bill Beardsley. Using mostly federal funds, the Nassau County Detention Center was completed in April 1978.

County commissioners were able to obtain a $1.4 million grant in 1977 to build the jail and contributed $50,000 themselves. The facility was built to house 46 prisoners – 36 men, 6 women, and 4 persons in isolation cells. A staff of 13 officers watched over the inmates, usually with 3 on duty at a time, consisting of 2 male jailers and a matron. Prisoners had space, sunlight, and individual cells. There are no bars, instead, there are “unbreakable” glass walls. Since the county jail was centrally heated and cooled, locals referred to it as the “County Hilton”.

Upon completion, the detention center’s design was considered state-of-the-art. It was the brainchild of Chief Deputy Bobby Moore, who spent 8 years as a jailer in the county’s previous 1930s-era jail. Moore used his own ideas and adopted others, keeping in mind a court-ordered massive reconstruction to improve jail living conditions in nearby Duval County. To minimize wasted space within the building, Moore and a local architect adapted the pod system already used in other county jails in Florida. It is constructed so that every pod is visible from the central control room or jail office, allowing the jail to operate with just a few officers. Each of the three 12-man cell blocks is self-contained and faces the control room. The women’s cell block is separate and faces a smaller control room where the matron (female jailer) sits. Suicidal or trouble-making individuals would be placed in isolation cells under camera surveillance. Each cell has a window, bunk, table, and toilet. The prisoners were allowed to exercise twice a week in a fenced yard.

Even before it was occupied, the Nassau County Detention Center had a number of problems. The federal government review board on the project ordered one 12-man pod eliminated, stating that the county’s population of 32,000 at the time did not need a 58-bed jail. The change did not lower the cost, but it altered the design so that one pod was not as easily viewable as the other two. In order to cut costs on the project, the county eliminated its plan for terrazzo flooring, instead opting to paint the cement floors.

Headaches began when one of the laborers working on the jail used a claw hammer to smash the glass and steel housings for cameras in the isolation cells because the camera company salesman boasted that they were “unbreakable.” The location of the jail itself also proved to be an issue. Deputies complained about having to drive 45 minutes after an arrest to the previous county jail in Fernandina Beach. Therefore, it was decided that this facility would be built in a central location within the county. However, there was no city water or sewage at the site; so, the county had to dig a well and build a new sewage plant specifically for the detention center. The sewer plant was constantly under repair due to corrosion and a buildup of sand in the water that ate up the fixtures. The jail’s utility bills were running roughly $1,000 a month.

Within only a few years, hairline cracks formed within the jail’s cement block walls. Many of the stainless-steel fixtures were rusted and the supposedly sturdy bunk beds were breaking loose from the wall. To add to the number of issues, jailers discovered that some of the fixtures used by the builder in the showers and on the sliding cell doors could be removed and used as a weapon. Two years after the jail was built, the air conditioning quit working during the summer months with temperatures averaging 100 degrees daily. Since there are no windows that open, deputies propped open doors to circulate air which led to three prisoners escaping.

According to a 1985 news article, a pair of prisoners in adjoining cells broke through the concrete block wall and scaled a 10-foot barbwire fence to escape the detention center. They were arrested after escaping from a prison in central Florida. The escapees put broken blocks under covers on their beds to make it look like they were sleeping. The two were later discovered missing the following morning during a head count. The two escapees stole a pickup truck about a half mile from the jail and got away.

In the 1990s, the Florida Department of Corrections made several complaints to Nassau County officials concerning overcrowding and maintenance problems, including a leaky roof. In 1996, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court against Nassau County on behalf of all jail inmates. According to the lawsuit, one inmate slipped on standing water from a roof leak hurting his back. He requested medical attention but got none for days. A doctor then prescribed only a muscle relaxer for his pain. Another inmate tripped over an inmate who was sleeping on the floor due to overcrowding, while a third inmate listed in the lawsuit stated he was jailed and then developed a rash but got no medical attention for several days.

By the 2000s, the old jail was in severe disrepair and overcrowded. Deputies and investigators were forced to operate out of 10 trailers on the property, with a firing range in the back next to a tin-roofed maintenance garage. In 2016, the Old Nassau County Detention Center was permanently closed, and a larger, more modern facility was built just a few miles away. The old jail remained empty until December 2023 when contractors were hired to begin the demolition process. After nearly six months, the demolition process is expected to be complete by July 2024.

Thank you for reading. Please share the blog with your friends. I appreciate the support. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. For more amazing, abandoned places check out my photography books.