In a major policy change, some misdemeanor crimes will no longer mean jail in Columbus
The Muscogee County Jail no longer will house suspects charged with some low-level misdemeanors, a major shift in who is detained, and who is not.
The move by Sheriff Greg Countryman is not unanticipated. Authorities here long have discussed citing people for some minor offenses instead of taking them to jail. Countryman’s predecessor, former Sheriff Donna Tompkins, allowed some inmates to be released without paying a bond last year, to reduce the jail population during the height of the COVID-19 crisis.
Countryman had surgery and was unavailable for comment Thursday, but Muscogee State Court Judge Andy Prather confirmed the jail will not house suspects previously held on the following offenses:
- Misdemeanor shoplifting, on the first offense.
- Driving without a license.
- Driving while one’s license is suspended, unless the suspect has three or more prior offenses.
- Having no motor vehicle insurance, unless the suspect has more than two prior offenses.
- Possessing a drug-related object.
Other misdemeanor charges still will result in jail time. Those include:
- Vehicular homicide.
- Driving under the influence.
- Family violence.
- Other misdemeanors of a “high and aggravated nature.”
- Probation violations.
- Contempt of court warrants or others issued by a judge.
Prather in an email wrote that he, State Court Judge Ben Richardson and Solicitor General Suzanne Goddard met with Countryman on Monday to discuss the changes. State Court has jurisdiction over most Muscogee County misdemeanor cases. Felony charges are adjudicated in Superior Court.
The Columbus Police Department confirmed that it later got notice of a change in jail policy, but attorneys with the Columbus Public Defenders office, who represent jail inmates, did not hear about the change until Thursday afternoon, and had been given no official notice, they said.
The sheriff’s office sent out a news release Friday morning, saying Georgia law authorizes the sheriff “to review and develop security procedures every four years and to preserve the jail from injury or waste.”
The sheriff’s director of community affairs, John Wade, wrote that Countryman is concerned about “the number of nonviolent misdemeanor offenders, who by the nature of their minor offense can simply be summoned and released with a court date, and are unnecessarily being housed for extended periods of time within the Muscogee County Jail.”
Wade added that Countryman hopes to improve security by reducing the inmate population, writing, “Possible considerations to achieve this goal include pretrial release, own recognizance release, or bond reconsideration.... Sheriff Countryman has devised a new policy that details offenses and stipulations under which a person arrested for a misdemeanor offense should be summons and released with a pending a court date, and details the conditions under which a person with misdemeanor charges will or will not be accepted for intake into the Muscogee County Jail.”
The policy takes effect on July 30, he said.
Raising the bar on who goes to jail here long has been proposed, said Chief Superior Court Judge Gil McBride. Other jurisdictions handle minor offenses with a principal summons to court, rather than putting people in jail.
Former Sheriff Tompkins in 2020 authorized “own recognizance” bonds for suspects she thought the jail safely could release. An “own recognizance bond” is an oath that suspects will come back to court, and needn’t offer any money or property to guarantee their appearance.
This story was originally published July 23, 2021 at 10:34 AM.