2 inmates sue over distance from attorney

<p>ATHENS _ Two Barrow County inmates who were sent to another county's jail because of overcrowding have filed a lawsuit claiming that they were kept too far from their attorney.</p><p>James Kennedy Hayes, facing a drug charge, and Michael Richard Thomas, jailed on an obstruction charge, were housed in the Newton County Jail because the Barrow County facility in Winder was out of room.</p><p>The 600-bed Newton County Jail is about 35 miles from Winder.</p><p>Both men asked to be sent back to the Barrow County jail. They were returned there last week, according to jail records.</p><p>Mike Mears, director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, said a judge could rule Hayes' and Thomas' lawsuit moot since they are no longer in the Newton County Jail. However, the two inmates could seek a restraining order prohibiting Barrow County sheriff's officials from again housing them outside the county.</p><p>While Hayes and Thomas have gained the relief they sought, their complaint could signal a trend in lawsuits, following a December ruling that barred the Fulton County sheriff from sending inmates to south Georgia to relieve overcrowding.</p><p>Officials in Barrow and Newton counties declined to comment on the suit.</p><p>Barrow County is planning to build a new jail, but the project has been controversial. Some residents oppose the proposed location.</p><p>On Jan. 5, Barrow County's jail was at 238 percent of capacity, according to statistics from the state Department of Community Affairs. As a result, some of its 214 inmates are housed in Newton County.</p><p>In December, a federal judge ruled that Fulton County Sheriff Myron Freeman could not send inmates to jails in south Georgia as a remedy to overcrowding at the Fulton County jail.</p><p>Terry Norris, executive vice president of the Georgia Sheriffs' Association, said lawsuits such as these are not unprecedented but they are uncommon in Georgia.</p><p>"Custody and control of inmates is the responsibility of the sheriff," Norris said. "With the limited jail space that we've seen all over the state, sheriffs are really having a hard time not moving inmates all over the state.</p><p>Norris called these lawsuits "a ploy by inmates to try and manipulate the system."</p><p>But Mears, whose office filed the lawsuit against Fulton County, said, "You can't remove an inmate from reasonable access to his attorney, particularly public defenders who were assigned to the case."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1d01854)</p>

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