Women Crowd the Jail

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Women Crowd the Jail

Bristol Herald Courier – Sullivan County Jail faces ongoing overcrowding of female prisoners and must alleviate the situation, Sheriff Keith Carr told county commissioners Monday night…”There’s no room at the inn,”… Read More

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.
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