Pubdate: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 2007 The Miami Herald Contact: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262 Author: Nikki Waller Criminal Justice AUDITORS TO STUDY BROWARD JAIL OVERCROWDING Broward's jail population, long the subject of controversy, comes under the microscope this week. A team of federal auditors is working this week to unravel the mysteries of how and why Broward's jail population has grown so rapidly. Consultants from the National Institute of Corrections, a branch of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, started work Tuesday and will continue through Friday. The three auditors will find a system where some 5,800 people sleep behind bars every night, 7,800 await trial on monitored release programs or house arrest and thousands more serve probation, never more than a missed appointment away from returning to jail. Broward Sheriff's Office says new jails are needed to cope with a growing population and to prevent future overcrowding. Critics have said the local judiciary and law enforcement can take steps to reduce the existing jail population, rather than build space for a larger one. Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne is planning construction for a new 1,000-bed jail, due in 2009, and has plans to ask the county commission for another facility designed for inmates with special needs or mental illnesses. Jenne invited the NIC team to conduct an assessment of county jails last September, when inmate population briefly surged over capacity. Since then, the jail population has returned to normal levels. Critics say new jails often benefit politicians and lobbyists, who can influence which firms get construction and service contracts for the jail. Even so, Jenne needs to actively try and resolve problems in the jail system, or he and the county could face punishment. Under the terms of a class-action lawsuit filed by Broward jail inmates in 1976 and settled in 1993, a federal judge monitors the county jails and can impose fines on the county and the sheriff if he finds the lockups in unacceptable shape. In a Sept. 20 letter to the NIC, Jenne asked for help and said his agency was "concerned that increased overcrowding will lead to an unstable, less secure jail environment." Overcrowding has many causes, say jail observers, so auditors are unlikely to find just one thing to blame. Broward's public defender, Howard Finkelstein, says in his mind, reducing the jail population is simple: grant pre-trial release for offenders who can't afford bail. For the last year, his office has placed extra attorneys in daily magistrate hearings to argue for lower bonds and get their clients out of jail on pre-trial release. Finkelstein estimates the effort has resulted in the release of 8-10 more people a day. "The only reasons to hold people in jail is because they're a threat to the public or there are reasons to believe they won't show up in court," Finkelstein said. "Having money doesn't mean you are a threat and having money doesn't mean you will show up in court." Others say auditors should be alarmed by the growing length of the average inmate's stay -- now 31 days, up from 24 days in 2002. BSO officials cannot say what has caused the increase in inmate stay and hope the NIC team's report, due sometime after this week's visit, will isolate the culprits and offer recommendations to help prevent future surges. Dr. Henry "Hank" Mack, longtime chairman of the county's Public Safety Coordinating Council, said if he could have named a main cause for the jail's growing population, he would have done so long ago. "What I want is a set of new eyes to look at us. Hopefully those eyes are going to tell us something we don't know," he said. Auditors will look at all the agencies involved with the jail. That means auditors could direct some of their recommendations at local judges, who have worked in recent months to reduce jail population by speeding up the time between arrests and hearings for probation violators. Broward's chief judge, Dale Ross, meets with auditors today, but Ross - -- who also holds the title of jail-cap judge, the courthouse's official monitor of the inmate count -- has long held that managing the jail population is the sheriff's job. "We're all in this together, but the sheriff and the court perform different functions," said Ross, adding: "jail issues are really not court issues." Finkelstein, who's often at loggerheads with Ross, disagrees with the chief judge and says the judiciary's actions have the greatest impact on jail population. "The judiciary is the gatekeeper, [judges] are the ones who determine who gets out of jail and who stays in," said Finkelstein. "It's not the state attorney, it's not the public defender, and it's certainly not the jail." Miami Herald staff writer Breanne Gilpatrick contributed to this report. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman