By Staff
CASSOPOLIS - Cass County Sheriff Joseph M. Underwood Jr. announces that a jail overcrowding emergency has been declared.
The official declaration indicates that the general population of inmates housed in the Cass County Jail has exceeded the rated maximum capacity of 116 for more than seven consecutive days.
This is the first such declaration since the facility opened its doors in 1990.
Shortly after the jail opened, state authorities allowed the double bunking of non-maximum security cells, which expanded the original capacity of 86 inmates to 116 offenders.
On Sept. 8, 2005, Sheriff Underwood notified the judges, county commissioners and Administrator Terry Proctor that the jail population exceeded its capacity.
Declaration of an overcrowding emergency became effective three business days later, on Sept. 13.
Purpose of the County Jail Overcrowding Emergency Powers Act is to authorize sheriffs, with oversight by the courts, to reduce their jail populations.
The goal is a reduction to 90 percent of rated capacity or 10 empty beds - whichever is greater.
Reducing sentences is, however, to occur as a last resort.
Michigan law outlines several options to be employed to reduce prisoner populations to avoid a declaration of overcrowding.
In Cass County, these options include: judicial review of bonds; use of community service orders, restitution and delayed sentencings; alternative placement, such as house arrest with electronic monitoring; residential probation programs; and expeditious transfer of prisoners sentenced to the state prison system.
In addition to these measures, a jail population management committee has been meeting regularly to review jail data and to identify policies, procedural changes and programs that can alleviate crowding in the jail.
This committee includes the Circuit, District and Probate judges, the Sheriff, the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, the County Administrator, the Department of Corrections supervisor, the County Prosecutor, the Public Defenders and the CCAB manager.
This committee continues to meet to consider options to address jail overcrowding.
Fourth District Court has begun to take felony pleas at the preliminary examination stage; pre-trial services are under consideration and the Prosecutor has agreed to consider implementing diversion in certain cases.
In spite of the committee's best efforts, crowded conditions in the jail did not abate.
As a result, on Sept. 27, within the 14-day limit set by statute, Circuit Judge Michael E. Dodge, having reviewed the list of inmates serving sentences in the jail, ordered that the non-violent offenders could have their terms reduced by the Sheriff in an effort to reduce the jail population.
Nine of the affected inmates were serving civil contempt sentences for refusing to pay court-ordered child support or were within five days of completing their original sentence.
Other inmates benefiting from the sentence reduction were property offenders or probation violators.
Offenders charged with crimes of violence, felony drug offenses, or weapons offenses were not considered for sentence reduction.
The jail population is reviewed daily; a count is taken between the hours of midnight and 4AM each day. The options provided in the statute are to be applied until the overcrowding. In the event that the previous measures don't have the desired effect within 28 days of the emergency declaration, the Sheriff is required to reduce the sentences of all offenders housed in the county jail by an equally applied percentage (maximum 30%) to reach the mandated level.
Overcrowding in the jail is a complex issue resulting from many factors.
One factor is an increase in criminal activity in our county. Crimes that were not a local issue ten years ago, particularly the manufacture, use and distribution of methamphetamine, now have a significant impact on the local criminal justice system. In addition, many crimes that used to be considered minor, now require formal booking and fingerprinting; drunken driving statutes have become more serious over the years, all felony offenders must have their DNA taken and submitted to the State archives. Another major factor affecting our local jail population has been the sentence guideline scoring system enacted by the Legislature. Nearly all felony offenders receive a sentence guideline "score" prior to their sentence that determines whether they will be eligible for a prison sentence. County jails now house many inmates that would have been in prison before the guidelines were enacted. While this may have the benefit of reducing overcrowding at the State prison level, county jails statewide are bearing the brunt of the legislation.
The jail population management committee will continue working to avoid future overcrowding in the jail and to improve criminal justice service delivery in and for Cass County.