Chief
Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson
On
behalf of the men and women of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department,
Welcome! to
I
am pleased to be able to give you a report on what the challenges we face as a
Law Enforcement agency in
Jail Overcrowding, is one of
our county’s biggest concerns. Each year
our number of jail bookings increases, our average daily population continues
to rise, and the cost associated with housing, caring, and transportation
grows. (attached are population and bookings
charts). We have increased from a 4.18
ADP of inmates in 1980 to 30.27 ADP in 2006. The inmates that
we house in our jail today is a much different type of inmate than we
have had to deal with in the past. A
large number of our inmates today have severe mental and medical health needs
as well as severe behavior abnormalities and disciplinary issues. Many inmates are on some type of doctor
ordered medication, or court ordered counseling. On Monday, I had 28 inmates in the jail, of
these 28 inmates, 15 of them accounted for 74 different medication
prescriptions with one inmate have 11 different prescriptions themselves.
This
type of inmate also, is often rejected by the other counties as a “safekeeper”
candidate which then compounds the problem I have meeting the inmate
classifications rules and regulations. It isn’t uncommon to have multiple
prisoner transports on any given day to accommodate court and medical appointments.
Because
of the overcrowding in our county jail I have had to also limit Probation and
Parole holds to violent criminals or sexual assault offenders. As a result,
this has had severe limitations on the probation agents, and their use of
apprehension requests to keep clients who are on probation on task and
following the rules of their probation or parole.
In
order to address these problems, we took several steps to cope with these
issues. We alerted our county board of
this problem, and we keep them continually informed of overcrowding related
issues. In 1990 we added double bunks
increasing our capacity to 36. In 2000 the
In
2003 the county looked at the feasibility of a regional jail. A study of this
idea discovered that a regional jail was not the answer for
During
that same time my command staff proposed an off-site site huber
facility to the law enforcement committee to consider. Up to this point we are
told there is no money for an off-site huber facility.
In
March of 2007, we will begin retrofitting and remodeling an area of the jail
that has served as the jail library, activity room and counseling/education
room since the new jail was opened in 1982. This remodeling will add 6 more
bunks to our jail but now our jail library is on a cart and there is no
activity room or group counseling/education room in the jail. We are completely
out of space in the jail.
It
is the Law enforcement committee’s hope, that by adding these 6 beds we can
keep a few more inmates here at our jail and not have inmates as “safekeepers” at another county jail.
In
addition to the changes I have noted so far we have also changed our
operational policies and procedures to help alleviate jail overcrowding.
By
working with our Circuit Court Judge Ed Leineweber we were able to implemented
a misdemeanor charge “book and release” program that allows for an arrested
person to come to our jail, get booked into the jail, give their prints and
take their photo and then be released from jail on a signature bond-provided
they meet the pre-approved standards set by the court. These individuals are
then given a court date where a misdemeanor criminal complaint is ready for
them when they appear in court for the first time. This change helps us use our
critical available bed space for individuals charged with felonies awaiting a
bond hearing rather than misdemeanor defendants waiting for a bail
hearing.
However
while this book and release program has helped find space and lowered our daily
population numbers we have also seen an increase in bail jumping charges both
from this book and release program and from the normal bail hearing releases. Its quite obvious that our population does not follow court
orders as well as they did in the past.
Related
to our jail costs, we are currently exploring a health care program where our
inmate population is being seen by one of two “designated” physicians who can
better understand what medications are being used and what medications are
needed rather than the med seeking we are currently seeing by having all
inmates see many different doctors at many different times.
In
December 2006, video conferencing was added to the court and jail. It is our hope that we can minimize our costs
associated with some transports across the state, and also save some time doing
bail hearing directly from the jail.
In
January, 2006 at the request of Judge Leineweber we began providing a certified
officer armed in the courtroom. At the point we started this program, I was
told that we were one of 3 counties left in the state that did not provide full
time security while court was in session. I believe that adding this armed
deputy has enhanced our safety and security at the courthouse.
During
the last half of 2006 some members of the Richland County Law Enforcement
committee began looking into other forms of alternatives to incarceration, such
as “day reporting”. The “Day reporting” program I’m being told
about includes elements of job training and AODA counseling in it. I am also
told that to be effective day reporting needs immediate consequences for
non-compliance to be an effective program. .
I also believe that to be successful, this program will require adequate
funding and supervision. This is a pending project.
Recently,
we finished installing digital video recording equipment in the Sheriff’s
Department interview room to help us comply with new mandates related to
“felony” custodial interviews.
Another
issue we are seeing in the county is the increase in illegal drug activity, and
its connection to criminal activity committed in the county. Prescription drug
abuse, marijuana use and abuse, and cocaine buys have been the main focus of
our drug task force investigators.
Currently
we are in the process of raising funds to implement
In
conclusion, I believe that my department has done everything we can to meet the
challenges faced by a rural county law enforcement agency in
The
difficulties related to our jail overcrowding problem has
had an impact on our court system, our health and human services programs and
our state corrections program. It is obviously also a community safety issue.
It is a problem that has not occurred over-night and it will not be corrected
over-night-but we are working on it by taking proactive steps forward and
examining the possibilities.
As
a professional law enforcement agency we have been dealing with more and more
difficult inmates, increasing inmate populations and more calls for protective
services from our citizens-All at a time when budgets are being reduced and
cut.
Working
with these issues is certainly a challenging puzzle and will continue to be a
challenge in the future-a challenge that I look forward to working with and
helping solve.
Sincerely;
Darrell
Berglin
Sheriff
of Richland County