Muscogee County Jail overcrowding returns despite Rapid Resolution initiative

The Muscogee County Jail is packed beyond capacity despite efforts to reduce overcrowding the past few years.

The facility, which can accommodate a maximum of 1,065 people, had about 1,077 inmates as of Friday, said Muscogee County Sheriff Donna Tompkins.

“I just met with judges and we’re sending information to the DA and the Public Defender and the Chief of Probation about all the people we have in the jail,” the sheriff said Thursday. “We’re trying to get everybody to work toward moving some of these people somehow, somewhere, some way.”

The numbers continue to climb two years after the city implemented a Rapid Resolution initiative to more efficiently move people through the legal system and relieve jail overcrowding.

The program, approved by Columbus Council in 2015, was developed through a collaborative effort that involved local judges, the District Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, law enforcement agencies and grassroots organizations such as the NAACP.

Four months after the program was implemented, Chief Assistant Public Defender Steve Craft said it had saved an estimated $406,000 in inmate housing costs, and enough in medical bills to easily cover the rest of the expenses. A reduction of the prison population led officials to close down a floor at the jail, he said.

Earlier this year, the issue of jail expansion surfaced at a meeting concerning the future of the Government Center. Mayor Teresa Tomlinson told members of the Mayor’s Commission on the Government Center and Judicial Building that about $33 million of OLOST funds had been slated for jail expansion. However, the expansion was not needed at the time, she said, and she wondered if that money could be used to build a judicial center instead.

On Friday, Tomlinson said the jail numbers have been as high as 1,200 during her tenure, and she doesn’t see the current statistics as an alarming, irreversible trend. She said the jail population tends to go up and down based on a variety of factors, including time of year, judges’ schedules and the pace of state probation cases.

“Certainly, for the vast majority of my awareness, during the prior Sheriff’s administration, there were around 1,100 (to) 1,130 —those are the numbers we’re very used to seeing,” Tomlinson said. “So, it wasn’t until we started Rapid Resolution, and also the criminal justice reform that the state did, that a lot of things began to adjust that.

“You’re going to fluctuate for various reasons, but what you’re looking for is whether or not you reach a new plateau over time,” she said. “ ... I would not say that the fact that it happens to be at (1,075) necessarily means Rapid Resolution isn’t working. It means something has happened and the progress has stalled, and so we need to jump on it and see what that is.”

When asked if the OLOST money is still needed for jail expansion, Tomlinson said: “... The prior sheriff (John Darr) has depleted almost all of that because he used it for budget overruns. But the money does still keep coming in, and certainly if we thought there was a need to expand the jail, that’s what that money is there for.

“However, I don’t think the fact that in two months the population is up warrants an expansion,” she said. “There would have to be a much more thorough analysis with the sheriff, and the judges, and all of that. ... I’ve heard nobody, including the sheriff, suggest that they think this is a permanent, irreversible trend.”

In an email to the Ledger-Enquirer, Superior Court Judge Gil McBride said the number of trial weeks dedicated strictly to Muscogee County criminal matters “has almost doubled in the last four years, plus, the Rapid Resolution Program affords early opportunity to resolve some of the less complex cases.”

Overcrowding at the Muscogee County jail has been a persistent problem for many years. In the 1990s, the U.S. Justice Department found constitutional deficiencies, including inadequate staffing, medical care and kitchen facilities. In response, Columbus Council signed an agreement with the justice department in 1999, which led to a $17 million expansion and improved staffing at the jail.

Nine years later, some inmates complained of sleeping on the floor and unsanitary conditions. In July of 2008, voters approved a local option sales tax for a number of public safety and capital improvement projects, including the hiring of 100 police officers and more staffing for the jail.

In October of 2009, city officials announced plans to seek $131.5 million in bonds to complete a list of projects, including a new jail tower costing an estimated $31 million. The expansion never occurred.

The jail currently consists of the Columbus stockade, which was built in the 1800s; a north tower, built in 1984; and a south tower, built in 1999.

Tompkins said the jail population has been climbing steadily over the past few months. When she became sheriff in January, the census was at about 900, she said. It later jumped to 1,000, and continues to increase. To deal with the overflow, Tompkins said, the jail provides inmates with mattress-lined boats for sleeping.

She said the floor that was closed down as a result of Rapid Resolution never reopened. It could accommodate about 100 inmates, but it would require eight additional correctional officers, which she doesn’t have. So the extra inmates are distributed throughout the remaining floors, which exacerbates the crowding problem.

The sheriff said she’s particularly concerned about the number of murder defendants at the jail, which is now up to 60 inmates.

“... What we’re seeing that we’re maintaining in our jail is really more people charged with violent offenses,” she said. “The people that are in for possession of marijuana, or even possession of cocaine, or something like that, they’re making bond, they’re getting out. It’s not those who are left. It’s armed robbery. It’s aggravated assault, you know, things like that.”

She said the jail also has been housing more inmates with probation violations because they’re not “bondable.”

“... We’ve got 100 people in jail on a violation of probation; no bond, they can’t go anywhere, they can’t do anything, ” she said, “which is why we’re trying to notify the Department of Community Services.”

McBride wrote that the court tries to “keep track of the jail population.”

“I think this week there are more than 100 probation violation defendants in jail on matters which do not involve new criminal charges, but only involve a violation of some term or condition of probation,” he wrote. “This is about 8 percent of the total jail population. Often, they have failed to report or failed to pay fees. All of these cases could be addressed fairly quickly — most of them within the next thirty days.

“Until a probation violation petition is filed, however, there is simply no violation of probation for the court to take up.”

McBride said there continues to be “large numbers of unindicted cases, but the indictment process is largely committed to prosecutorial discretion, so others would be better positioned than a judge to comment on this problem. Without an indictment or accusation, there is generally no case for a judge to even consider unless the defendant waives this process. The grand jury sits in Muscogee County almost every Tuesday, ready to take up indictments.”

In addition to Rapid Resolution, Tompkins said, the Sheriff’s Office also has a pre-trial release program, where defendants locked up for low-level offenses are released and monitored by deputies if they can’t pay bond. She said about 115 people are currently out on ankle monitors. Still, the jail overcrowding persists.

“I do believe historically, it’s a fact, that during the summertime there is more increase in arrests for whatever reason,” she said. “I remember learning that 20 years ago. So that may have something to do with it. But I’m not really sure why the jail population is increasing and I don’t want to point a finger of blame at anyone. I’m just making everyone aware.”

Tompkins said the Sheriff’s budget was reduced by about $458,000 to help fund personnel for the Rapid Resolution docket.

“The logic, I guess, being that if we had less inmates we would need less employees,” she said. “... My understanding is that that should’ve been funding for about six positions within the Sheriff’s Department and that funding has never been replaced.”

She said the funding is not that much of an issue currently because she has about 25 open positions that she’s having difficulty filling due to pay salaries and negative media coverage about law enforcement.

“If I had more of my positions filled, it might be more of an issue for me,” she said. “Then I would worry about the six that I could’ve potentially had.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2017 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Muscogee County Jail overcrowding returns despite Rapid Resolution initiative."