Female Inmates Crowd Jail

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  • January 15, 1993
  • Bristol Herald Courier
  • 1
  • Rick Wagner

Female Inmates Crowd Jail

Sullivan County Jail faces ongoing overcrowding of female prisoners and must alleviate the situation, Sheriff Keith Carr told county commissioners Monday night.

“I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel as far as reducing the population” of female inmates, Carr said.

“There’s no room at the inn,” Carr told the Administrative Committee of County Commission. “There’s simply no place to put the females.”

The committee, which is charged with overseeing jail operations, responded by voting 6-0 with one absent to recommend approval of a resolution that would study the problem and come up with a recommendation on how to solve it. The proposal will go before the Executive and Budget committees this week, and the full commission Jan. 18.

“The female facility at the Sullivan County Jail is designed for a maximum occupancy of 20 prisoners and we have routinely housed 27 to 28 female prisoners,” Carr said in a prepared statement. “Usually, 12 to 14 of these females are felons.”

Of those 12 to 14, Carr said that seven or eight are women already convicted of felonies but unable to be moved elsewhere because of limited space for females in state prisons.

“Statewide, we desire to put people in jail for their crimes but we don’t desire to build the facilities,” Carr said. Added jail space is also needed for laundry facilities because of poor ventilation in the current laundry room, county Purchasing Agent Joe Mike Akard said.

Commissioner Craig Rockett of Bristol said he had read that Knox County was housing some prisoners in school buildings, but Carr said that would require hiring more staff and ultimately be more expensive than other alternatives.

Carr said the situation is caused partly by sentencing reform that made former felony convictions into misdemeanor convictions, putting prisoners into county jails instead of state prisons.

Also, he said more females are committing felonies and that Tennessee has a shortage of prison capacity for female prisoners.

Brought into the jail are those arrested in Sullivan County, including those arrested by the Sheriffs Department, Bristol Tennessee Police, Bluff City Police and some by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and Kingsport Police. Kingsport has its own holding facility used for up to 48 hours per inmate.

“The Tennessee Corrections Institute and the federal courts require segregation of felons — armed robbers, murderers from misdemeanants — shoplifters, DUIs, etc. We are not able to satisfy this requirement with the continuing increasing population problem,” Carr said.

Carr lauded judges in the county for working with officials to keep overcrowding to a minimum and said that state officials have helped with male and female overcrowding as best as they can with limited resources.

“We’ve rarely been able to get females into the (state) institution in the past year,” Carr said.

“It certainly has a trickle-down effect. The problem certainly cannot be erased.”

The committee voted to support a resolution to be written by Chairwoman Margaret DeVault of Bristol but sponsored by Carol Belcher of Blountville and seconded by Ron Reedy of Kingsport. The measure would have County Executive John McKamey appoint a committee to study the problem and determine if an in-house or outside study should be conducted on how to fix the problem.

“Most probably the county will ask for multiple outside studies,” Carr said after the meeting.

Members are to include Carr or a member of his staff, Akard and possibly county commissioners. McKamey said state corrections officials might also participate, and Carr said federal prison officials are available on a limited basis for advice.

Voting for the measure were Belcher, Rockett, Michael Surgenor of Bloomingdale, Reedy, Marvin Hyatt of Piney Flats and Harold Childress of Kingsport. Mike Rutherford of Friendship was absent.

Speak the words "overcrowded jail" and Sullivan County leaders have plenty of things to say. County Executive Keith Westmoreland likes to describe the ensuing discussion as a "gripe session" and it isn’t long before one understands why. At best, Westmoreland sees the county heading toward the same problems it experienced before construction of the $6 million county jail when the old jail faced severe overcrowding, and no immediate help from the state was in sight. "It’s a vicious cycle," Westmoreland said Friday. ‘"It’s the same situation with the old jail; we'll be back in federal court for overcrowding." "Then what are we going to do, build another jail?" Westmoreland said. The county jail continues to be filled to capacity — with a once-deemed "temporary" jail annex still in full operation — and the county sees no slack in boarding state prisoners. By his own admission, Westmoreland has long "raised cain" to legislators about matters such as the state's decision to place a cap on funding to counties for board bills, but the expenses don’t stop there. Medical expenses for inmates are always high and the county continually faces lawsuits filed by state prisoners. The lawsuits usually focus on complaints about their housing in the county jail. "They (state inmates) have no access to the luxuries they would have," Westmoreland said about inmates the county is required to house. Also, the county must pay for additional personnel to oversee operation of the jail annex which stays full, Westmoreland said. About 110 state inmates were housed in the county jail last week, "We've got plenty of other expenses than holding and feeding," Westmoreland said. Westmoreland finds fault with state policy that requires prisoners to stay overnight in a hospital before providing funding reimbursement. "The Tennessee Corrections Department is trying to make crooks out of everybody," Westmoreland said. County Commissioner Bob Ammons agreed Friday that fellow commissioners, for the most part, carry some resentment against the state for their continual jail dilemma. "Why should we on the local level be required to pay for state prisoners?" Ammons said. “The state should take care of its own,’’ Ammons said. Commenting on the state cap on board bills, Westmoreland said, "We don’t want their money, we want them to take their people." "It irritates the commissioners, but we're powerless," Ammons said. "The state needs to stop throwing the burden on the property tax," he said.
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