Jail releases 'Emergency' builds case for more county cells

The Genesee County Jail was too small from the moment it was first opened. Despite the use of alternative sentencing facilities, electronic tethers and other creative efforts to divert less dangerous or mentally ill inmates, ultimately the problem is one that only more space will rectify.

A county task force on jail overcrowding is meeting on this matter and, according to Archie Bailey, who is chairman of both the county Board of Commissioners and the task force, "everything is on the table."

That's encouraging, because until the county builds either a minimum/medium security facility or even a second jail, overcrowding "emergencies," such as the one county Sheriff Robert Pickell announced last week, could become commonplace.

The county jail has a capacity for 580, but has hit populations over 700 inmates at times. When it operates over the limit for seven consecutive days, an emergency is declared, and inmates are released.

The emergency declared last week, the first during Pickell's nine-year tenure, means the jail will be forced to release about 150 inmates during the next two weeks. Those to be freed presumably are incarcerated on misdemeanor offenses, but that makes the situation marginally tolerable.

Such releases make a mockery of the justice system and send the wrong signal to criminals still on the street.

Ironically, the overcrowding that caused this one was exacerbated by the reopening of the Flint lockup, which patched another glaring problem in local law enforcement. Without the lockup, many of those to whom police issued appearance tickets never showed up in court. Now, many of them wind up housed in the Flint facility long enough to go before a judge. Unfortunately, this adds about 100 inmates a week to the county jail and increases fighting, stress and health problems.

Pickell and judges deserve credit for doing much to ease overcrowding, using alternatives to punish offenders and diverting the mentally ill for treatment. Those efforts can and should continue, but they will never be an adequate substitute for more cells, which we assume the task force will conclude.

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©2007 Flint Journal

© 2007 Flint Journal. Used with permission

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