Crowd control

The Sullivan County jail was built to hold 383 inmates. But the numbers haven’t been that low since mid-January, and the jail staff is having difficulty practicing Crowd control.

Denzil Hensley sleeps on a concrete floor.

The Sullivan County jail inmate hasn’t slept in a bed since he began serving time for a probation violation on a theft conviction. The jail doesn’t have enough beds to go around.

“I’m sleeping on the floor on a mat about an inch thick,” he said.

Makeshift beds like Hensley’s dot cell floors. They’re just one problem at a jail that has been overcrowded every day this year since Jan. 15.

The jail held 377 inmates that day. State regulations allow a maximum of 383.

The population topped 500 three times in August, and jail Maj. Brenda Hensley — no relation to Denzil Hensley — doesn’t expect things to get better anytime soon.

“I would be shocked if we ever got down to 425 again,” she said.

Inmates complain that the overcrowding leads to sickness, violence and filth. One area lawyer has threatened to file a federal lawsuit over the conditions.

“I have a plaintiff, and I plan to sue them if they don’t do anything about it soon,” said Scott Pratt, a Johnson City lawyer who recently settled a class-action suit against the Carter County Jail. “There is a great deal of violence going on in Sullivan County and medical needs aren’t being met.”

Hensley and Sheriff Wayne Anderson said they’re doing the best they can.

“When I first came into office in 1998, we had almost 600 people in jail and we had less capacity — 317,” Anderson said. “I think our conditions today are pretty good to be an overcrowded jail.”

Weekends usually are the most crowded times, when people serve 48-hour sentences for driving under the influence, the sheriff said. That’s when the jail population sometimes swells to more than 500.

The population hit its all-time high this year on Aug. 21, when it held 509 inmates. The population dropped to 502 the next day and climbed back to 504 by Aug. 24, a Tuesday.

The jail held an average of 477 inmates per day that month, according to Tennessee Department of Correction statistics – more than 124 percent of its capacity.

Jail authorities place much of the blame on the state prison system, which refuses to accept inmates with sentences of three years or less. Under state law, it is allowed to refuse.

In August, the county jail had an average of 120 inmates the state had not taken to prison, up from an average of 100 in July. The state inmates pushed the jail to overcapacity both times.

The overcrowding makes beds scarce, but some inmates choose to sleep on the floor, Anderson said. They worry about falling out of the upper bunks, he said.

Inmates have fallen off the beds and hurt themselves over the years, although others have jumped, Maj. Hensley said.

Beds aren’t the only problem. Inmates say the crowded quarters make fights and thefts more common. None have caused serious injuries, the major said. Skin infections, particularly staph, sometimes break out. People often carry the bacteria on their skin, and it spreads easily in crowded quarters, health administrator Carolyn Culbertson said.

The jail has seen 19 cases of staph this year, including one that infected Culbertson and a jailer.

“There’s a lot of staph cases that come out of hospitals,” the sheriff said. “It’s something you have to battle.”

Those cases keep the jail’s two registered nurses, seven practical nurses and its two-days-a-week doctor busy.

“We do the best we can,” the sheriff said. “We’re stretched thin.”

Jail inmate James Marshall of Kingsport, who’s serving time for a domestic violence conviction, claims the overcrowding has cost him medicine and kept him from getting a bath.

Marshall uses a wheelchair and said it took 52 days for him to get a shower after he began serving time in April.

Maj. Hensley said jailers offer Marshall a shower each day. He doesn’t want to stay in solitary confinement in the jail’s maximum-security area, which has the only wheelchair-accessible shower, she said, and prefers the minimum-security area, where he can watch television and talk with other inmates.

Marshall said he doesn’t get all his medicines.

Anderson said some drugs, such as narcotics and heavy painkillers, aren’t allowed in the jail.

Inmates also complain about dirty showers and bathrooms.

The sheriff said overcrowding makes it more difficult to keep things clean but that inmates are responsible for cleaning their own areas.

“We don’t have a cleaning service that’s going to clean their toilets for them,” Anderson said. “We give them cleaning supplies.”

Inmates don’t get the three hours a week of outside exercise required by state law. In an overcrowded jail, that requirement’s impossible to meet, Maj. Hensley said.

Sometimes only one or two inmates are released into an exercise yard at a time because they are under medical quarantine or can’t get along with other inmates, she said.

County officials have formed a special committee to study the jail’s overcrowding. Solutions could include expanding the minimum-security wing, but costs aren’t available yet.

Tennessee also is adding prison space, although in four years the state still projects it will be 4,600 beds short of demand.

No matter what happens with state or county plans, Maj. Hensley said she doesn’t foresee jail overcrowding disappearing for good.

As the general population and crime rate increase, so will the demand for jail space,

And inmates like Denzil Hensley will continue to sleep on the floor.

 

Jail Facts

 

• • Opened in 1988 after a federal judge capped the number of inmates at the old county lockup

• • Underwent a $6.85 million renovation and expansion completed in late 2001

• • Jail annex, a 96-capacity building for minimum-security inmates, opened in 1986 and was closed last year due to security concerns

• • Has 89 employees, including 52 correctional officers

• • Its 2004-05 budget is $2,474,561