Crowding plagues county jail in Macon

Posted 6:47PM on Sunday 14th July 2002 ( 22 years ago )

MACON - The Bibb County jail is so crowded that the sheriff wasn't surprised when a dangerous prisoner escaped in May. A man facing 40 charges related to shootings and thefts escaped for 63 hours that month, and he never should've been in that jail, Sheriff Jerry Modena said. Local jails are intended to hold accused criminals only for a few months, but increasingly they're being used to house inmates for years, even inmates that have violent records and belong in tighter-security prisons. The man who escaped from the Bibb County jail, James Kevin Keel, had been living there more than a year. He was kept in a special cell and checked every 15 minutes, but Modena said he still worried about him. Keel is now back in the jail awaiting a September trial, but Modena doesn't feel any better about his ability to keep Keel locked up. ``I wonder what he's doing when I go to bed at night, and in the morning when I come in I ask what he's doing,'' Modena told The Macon Telegraph. Keel's escape highlights the gap between the demands placed on local jails today compared to the county lockups of the past. Holding prisoners longer while they await trial or prison beds creates perpetual overcrowding. This in turn can make violent prisoners more belligerent and deputies more harried. To alleviate the problem, Modena has asked other law enforcement agencies to avoid making arrests for misdemeanor offenses, such as drug possession or public drunkenness. ``I'll tell them: Write citations. Don't bring 'em in,'' Modena said. ``If our decision is to hold an armed robber or a public drunk, the choice is obvious.'' Modena added, ``They know when this jail's loaded up, we've got to be selective. If I'm under a court order and my people are too crowded, I'll block the jail. They can hold them in the parking lot if they want to.'' Bibb County is under a federal court order to control its population, said John Southern, director of jail assistance for the Georgia Sheriffs' Association. Bibb's jail is permitted to house no more than 585 inmates, but Modena said his office has struggled since January to keep the number that low, sometimes failing. During its worst period, the jail exceeded the limit off and on during a 46-day span that ended July 3. If the county continues violating its court order by housing too many inmates, a federal judge can decide to hold Modena in contempt or fine the county each day the jail is overfilled. Although jails were once a place where locals served short sentences for misdemeanors, about 75 percent of Bibb's inmates are felons. Many sheriffs transfer their tougher cases to more modern jails in other counties when they believe their own security is inadequate, Southern said. But Modena said this costs too much to be practical. Although the state pays the jail $20 for each day it houses a state prisoner, the actual cost of housing an inmate at the jail is $45.82 a day, said sheriff's Maj. Russell Nelson. ``Because the state has space problems,'' Southern said, ``the poor taxpayer of Bibb is paying for it.'' Lloyd Spickard, jail coordinator for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said that Georgia's backlog of inmates is the smallest in at least 13 years. In 1989, there were 5,000 inmates waiting in county jails; in 1999, there were about 4,250. Spickard said the backlog is only about 1,700 now, but state reports for June listed the number at 3,273. Spickard said Bibb should not be hurting. He cited the state's June jail population report, which showed the jail only 81 percent full. ``Bibb is better than it's ever been,'' said Spickard. ``I don't know why they're squawking.'' Modena disputed the state statistics. ``I have no earthly idea what he's talking about,'' Modena said. ``We have to call the state constantly to come pick (inmates) up. We've told the state, 'We'll haul them out of here ourselves if you'll tell us where to haul them.' `` Many of the 148 functioning jails in Georgia are stretched at the seams. A June state report showed 52 jails were operating over capacity. Overcrowding affects the courts, too. Otis Scarbary, State Court solicitor, acknowledged that he looks for other punishments besides jail for minor offenders. Judges also set bail lower and rush attorney appointments for those who can't make bond, he said. Scarbary said that sometimes the jail's space constraints might have resulted in sentences that were too light. ``It's problematic,'' he said. ``When you've got only one slot and multiple offenders, it's difficult to decide who should be in jail longer.''

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