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Not
at riot stage,
says
county manager
Tensions running
high,
says
jail
administrator
By
Fred Mramor
Sierra
County’s jail is always overcrowded but has been worse than usual since
Memorial Day, according to Roy Bagwell, County Detention Center
Administrator.
Bagwell
this week said the county lockup is equipped with only 39 bunks but
currently houses 51 inmates. He said 56 prisoners were held at the
detention center immediately after Memorial Day.
“With
that many people in the jail and that close together, tensions sometimes
run high,” Bagwell said. But Bagwell said the situation isn’t
dangerous, until something happens. “There have been verbal altercations
between inmates but nothing serious so far, cross my fingers,” Bagwell
said.
Bagwell
said he goes through the jail everyday to talk with inmates and to try to
tone things down when things seem to be getting tense.
One
problem, he said, is the lack of activity for the inmates and the lack of
jailers to supervise them. Bagwell said that if he had the supervisory
manpower, he would allow inmates outside in the fenced yard more often.
Bagwell
said the jail is badly understaffed and that there are often only two
detention officers on duty during a shift, which, he said, is only enough
to maintain the facility and keep its doors locked. Security risks
naturally are greater in an overcrowded jail, Bagwell said.
The
jail contains a mix of one, four, six and eight-bunk cells. But with more
inmates than bunks, two inmates may be housed in the one-bunk cells, six
in the four-bunk cells and eight in the six-bunk cells, Bagwell said. He
said no more than eight inmates are held in the eight-bunk cells because
there just isn’t room for more.
Surplus
inmates sleep on folding mattresses on the jail’s concrete floor,
Bagwell said. Some inmates sleep on army-type, canvass cots and some
inmates combine cots with mattresses. Bagwell said sleeping arrangements
are assigned on a first come, first serve basis.
Bagwell
said the county’s old jailhouse is overtaxed by holding so many inmates.
He said the jail has had consistent plumbing problems that are exacerbated
by being used by too many prisoners at one time. To make matters worse,
Bagwell said some inmates stuff objects into toilets that the toilets are
not designed to accept. Bagwell attributes these deliberate acts of
vandalism to inmates’ frustration.
Bagwell
said it’s hard to say why the jail is so crowded now. He said there
haven’t been more arrests than usual nor an increase in any particular
type of crime in the area.
“It’s
just that nobody’s moving,” Bagwell said.
Only
four of the county’s 51 inmates (55 including four being held in other
facilities around the state) have been convicted and are serving their
sentences in jail. The rest, including a number of probation violators,
are in adjudicatory limbo and waiting for their day in court, Bagwell
said.
To alleviate the jail’s overcrowded condition, Bagwell said that just
before Memorial Day he requested through the county manager that the
district attorney and the courts allow some prisoners to be released from
the facility.
Bagwell
said it would be up to the courts to determine which inmates might be
released.
Fifty
inmates were housed in the county jail immediately before Memorial Day,
Bagwell said, and with a holiday weekend coming he knew he would soon have
more guests to accommodate.
“When
the lake fills up to 100,000 people, some of them just insist on coming to
jail,” Bagwell said.
Bagwell
said he hasn’t seen any results from his request to allow some prisoners
to be released from custody.
Bagwell
apparently isn’t worried about lawsuits resulting from the jail being
overcrowded. Bagwell said inmates always complain and threaten to sue for
one thing or another. But he said he has heard no threats of lawsuits
because of overcrowding that he takes seriously.
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