Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) Copyright: 2004 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. Contact: http://www.knoxnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226 Author: Bob Fowler Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) PROGRAMS SHOULD HELP EASE JAIL OVERCROWDING CLINTON - A reactivated community service program and more emphasis on pre-trial releases should greatly reduce overcrowding at the Anderson County Jail, officials said Monday. With both those programs in operation, there will be an option to jail sentences for nonviolent offenders charged with misdemeanor crimes, County Mayor Rex Lynch said. Lynch said a consultant's $49,000 study of jail population numbers last winter "was done at a bad time.'' That study was made during a surge in inmate population that Lynch dubbed "an anomaly.'' Lynch said the population at the jail, which was built to house 166 inmates, is now dropping. "I am confident that the inmate population will be below 145 total inmates by early August,'' he said in a press release. The jail study by Carter Goble Associates Inc. of Columbia, S.C., recommended that the current jail more than double in size at a cost of between $10 million and $11 million. The expansion would address the county's jail needs through the year 2020, according to the study. Lynch said the consultants' jail population study results were skewed to the upside because the county's Probation Department was in limbo last winter, and some alternatives to jail weren't available then. The Probation Department was under investigation last winter for allegations that director Alan Beauchamp had improper relations with three female inmates. Now that Beauchamp has been cleared of wrongdoing and is back on the job, the community service program will restart this Saturday, July 17, Lynch said. That will have an "immediate effect'' on the inmate population, he said. Beauchamp estimated that a reactivated community service would mean between 25 and 35 fewer jail inmates a month. Those sentenced to community service are assigned to work on projects ranging from litter pickup to painting fire hydrants. Lynch said he met Monday with Anderson County Sessions Court Judge Don Layton and plans to meet today with the county's other sessions judge, Ron Murch, to see what can be done to reduce jail crowding. Layton said he intends to implement "those portions (of the pretrial release and community service programs) we think are reasonable.'' "I don't feel like we need an $11 million jail,'' Layton said. He said the consultants never talked to him during their study, and he hasn't been given a copy of their findings. "The judges need to be in the loop,'' Lynch said. In pretrial release, defendants charged with nonviolent misdemeanor crimes are assigned to that program instead of being placed in jail while they await trial. Lynch said the program is now in effect on weekdays, and he'd like it enhanced to include weekends, when the jail population usually mushrooms. Lynch said while he feels a doubling of the jail isn't necessary, there is a legitimate need to expand the women's cell area. The 16-bed unit had been overcrowded for years. "We definitely need more housing for women, and we need to do it immediately,'' he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin