Ground Breaking Ceremony held for New Jail Facility in Dallas, Coroner to Gain New Space

Paulding County held the groundbreaking ceremony last week for its new $70 million Detention Center and Sheriff’s offices at the Watson Government Complex in Dallas. The construction phase is expected to take 18 months to complete on land behind the existing Watson Administrative and Court buildings in Dallas. Sheriff Gary Gulledge made reference last week to another component of the new jail facility and that is that the county will gain an actual morgue at the site. Coroner Lindsay Fuller, who also attended last week’s ceremony is really looking forward to improvements that having a morgue at Watson will offer.
“One of the things I had hoped to accomplish when I ran for Coroner was to obtain a secure, neutral holding facility for our deceased. The morgue being in conjunction with the jail is a giant step in the right direction,” Ms. Fuller said.
The first Paulding County Morgue will have the capacity to store four to six persons at a time. This is also a key improvement in conjunction with homicide investigations, Fuller said.
“It preserves the chain of custody, ensures the security of the deceased and the preservation not only the body itself but any evidence on the body, and provides for the deceased to remain in Paulding County while awaiting autopsy,” she said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Decatur currently does autopsies for 80 counties in Georgia including Paulding, Fuller said. “It hasn’t been uncommon for a medical examiner to say they want to do an exam but that we will have to hold the body several days before they have a table available. This can present a dilemma when you don’t have a holding facility,” she said.
Paulding County is currently utilizing the Polk County Morgue which is also in conjunction with their Sheriff’s department in Cedartown. Thus, deceased are being transported from Paulding County to Polk County and finally to Decatur where the autopsies are conducted at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Fuller explained.
“With the construction of the morgue we’ll be able to eliminate going out of County for holding purposes and be able to hold the body in our morgue and transport directly to Decatur when the medical examiner has the availability to conduct the exam,” she said.
Construction of the entire facility will continue through next year but should be wrapping up in early 2020.
“I’m very grateful that Sheriff Gulledge and Commissioner Crowe see the need and are willing to support me in getting a morgue in this county. Both of those guys have been instrumental in this process and I’m very thankful for their support,” Fuller said.

Paulding County held the groundbreaking ceremony for its new $70 million Detention Center and Sheriff’s offices at the Watson Government Complex in Dallas. State and local officials attended and participated in the ‘shovel’ ceremony. Construction will continue into early 2020. (Photo: submitted/Paulding County Board of Commissioners)