MARYVILLE, TENNESSEE – Blount County Sheriff James Lee Berrong announced the Blount County Justice Center will close to in-person business beginning Friday, December 18 and with plans to re-open to the public beginning Monday, January 4. This is due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the county. The closure will NOT affect Patrol or Corrections operations.
“Once again, we had to make a very tough decision to close to in-person business in order to protect our employees and the citizens,” Sheriff Berrong said. “With the vaccine rolling out over the next couple of weeks, we are hoping we will see a drop in cases over the next few weeks, and we can resume normal operations January 4. In the meantime, Sheriff’s Office employees will continue to report to work and serve the public.”
During this time, citizens will be able to access the different Sheriff’s operations by way of phone Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Citizens can reach the following operations at the phone numbers listed below:
• Call 911 for emergencies
• To speak with a deputy, call (865)983-3620
• Records Office (865)273-5003
• For incident reports, accident reports, background checks, or other records-related transactions, email reports@bcso.com
• Criminal Investigations (865)273-5001
• Court Services (865)273-5002
• Adult Corrections (865)273-5245
• Narcotics (865)977-SANO
• Video visitation from the 24-hour jail lobby will continue to be limited to three stations, and we will be enforcing the 10 person limit for gatherings. Onsite video visitation is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. We strongly encourage citizens to access video visitation from home.
The Justice Center is already scheduled for holiday closures on December 23, 24, and 25 for Christmas, and December 31 and January 1 for New Year’s.
Blount County General Sessions Court will hold in-custody criminal dockets on Monday, December 21 and Wednesday, December 30. All other courts are rescheduled.
The BCSO and the Blount County Justice Center are continuing to follow CDC guidelines regarding routine environmental cleaning, but during the closure, the maintenance staff will deep clean throughout the building.
“Closing the Justice Center to in-person business was a last resort option, but we felt it was necessary to protect everyone’s health, Sheriff Berrong said. “We are praying that we will see an overall improvement in COVID cases over the next few weeks. Until then, our deputies will continue serving our citizens to the best of our abilities. We hope everyone can stay healthy during the holidays so they can spend time with their families during the Christmas season.”