Decatur County Prison Warden Elijah McCoy announced to the Decatur County Board of Commissioners Tuesday part of his plans to help bring the prison out of its financial hole.

McCoy said his first step was to return between 90-100 inmates to the State of Georgia, freeing up almost $475,000 a year for the county.

His second step was to dismiss up to 10 Decatur County Correctional Institute employees by June 30.

“I have notified staff this morning that we will be identifying some of these guys on performance and attendance, effective June 30,” McCoy said. “I will dismiss up to 10 employees.”

McCoy said he was looking for openings in other departments in the county that employees could be moved to should they cease working at the prison.

“There is some optimism concerning that,” Decatur County Commission Chairman Dennis Brinson said. “I’m hoping that is definitely the case. We are living in a time where everybody needs a job, and we need to take care of our employees if we can.”

McCoy said having fewer inmates, and fewer employees, would not affect the current road detail workload done by Decatur County.

“This is not going to effect the workload at all,” McCoy said. “We roughly send out 100 to 175 inmates daily. We will still be able to operate and continue the mission Decatur County needs to continue. My goal is to put every single inmate out that door. Everybody will be outside.”

Currently, the prison pays $33 per day for each of the 100 inmates McCoy is considering releasing back to the state, $20 of which is paid for by the State of Georgia.

“You’re talking about $1,300 (per inmate),” Brinson said about the money saved in Decatur County. “It’s going to be tremendous savings.”

McCoy said he was looking at having this accomplished by June 1. After the move, roughly 220 inmates would remain at the Decatur County Prison.