Too many Inmates

kcrawford@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6242

GENESEE COUNTY - A jail-overcrowding emergency will force the county to release about 150 inmates over the next two weeks, Sheriff Robert Pickell said Monday.

The sheriff said the county Board of Commissioners needs to take action, such as building a new minimum security facility or a second jail.

"Unfortunately, we just don't have the space," Pickell said about the overcrowding emergency and the need to release inmates.

Typically, such inmates are those convicted of misdemeanor offenses.

Pickell said an influx of people coming from the city of Flint's lockup has had a huge impact on the inmate population of the county jail. The city's temporary holding facility was reopened in May.

"We have a hundred people in our holding area, and that's not legal," Pickell said. "We have guys who haven't showered in a week."

Since the city lockup opened, it has added about 100 inmates each week to the county jail. The overcrowding at the jail has resulted in fights, high tension and stress for inmates and staff and health risks.

The jail routinely is packed with more inmates than it was designed to hold, but the courts and the sheriff have managed to lessen the population without invoking the state's jail-overcrowding law.

But last week, Pickell formally notified local judges that the jail's population has been over its capacity of 580 inmates for seven consecutive days. State law permits Michigan sheriffs to declare emergencies and release inmates who had been sentenced to serve time in jail.

In the case of the Genesee County Jail, the population has been up over 700 inmates. By declaring an overcrowding emergency, local judges have two weeks to reduce the inmate population to 555.

"This is a very serious matter," Pickell said. "This is the first time in nine years as sheriff that I've had to declare an overcrowding emergency."

Genesee Circuit Judge Archie Hayman, chief of the county's judges, said that while the jail has been overcrowded, the judges have taken steps and given the sheriff tools to alleviate the situation.

"We're taking steps right now," he said about efforts to reduce the number of inmates.

"We're not sending dangerous felons out the door," Hayman said.

Archie Bailey, chairman of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners and chairman of the board's jail overcrowding task force, said the group has been meeting regularly on the issue.

"Everything is on the table at this point. A new facility in addition to the existing facility has not been ruled out," said Bailey.

"We're also focusing on diversion for seriously mentally ill prisoners. Our goal is to keep very dangerous people off the streets and in the jail, but at the same time, there are prisoners who are not a threat to society who can be diverted to other agencies."

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