Dear Editor:
When the dam is leaking, it’s easy to get a big rock to patch the gaping hole, but that ignores all the little holes that continue to drain the reservoir. Such is the case with the Richmond County Jail, which suffers an acute case of overcrowding with the only solution proposed to build more beds.
I’m not an expert in criminal justice, nor do I know any more about this issue but what fellow readers know from what is in the local press. However, I do feel a need for much more information to be aired publicly before taxpayers sign a $38 million check for a new jail pod.
A new pod will not be open for a couple of years, so what is to happen in the meantime? Does the jail just continue to become more overcrowded? Do we put up tents in the recreation yard? Are conditions so bad that an inmate lawsuit will result in federal judge intervening to appoint a receiver to run our jail with a blank check?
Everyone who plays a part in filling the jail with inmates should be brought to the table: law enforcement, District Attorney, State Court Solicitor, Superior Court, State Court, Magistrate Court, Public Defender, probation offices, and Georgia Department of Corrections, among others.
How can they collectively reduce the current jail population without degrading public safety? Perhaps, revising bond procedures and probation revocations, accelerating trials and sentencing, pressing for more guilty pleas.
What about night and weekend court? The courtrooms in the John H. Ruffin, Jr., courthouse are dark sixteen hours a day. Bring in senior-status judges to help with the caseload, along with special prosecutors and contract attorneys. Paying for the extra help and using existing, unused infrastructure is a small price to pay. We can only blame COVID for the backlog for so long.
The Georgia Department of Corrections should be pressed to get state prisoners out of the jail within days of sentencing. We obviously do not have the beds to house state prisoners, and local taxpayers should not have to pick up the tab to make more room.
For the past two years, the Richmond County grand jury has not beat the drum for a jail expansion. Regular “inspections” by jury committees have not reported the dire conditions we are now reading about. Makes you wonder if the jurors were at the right jail. If not, why did jail officials not tell these citizens about the problems they now share with us?
The grand jurors, though, consistently commented on the staffing shortage. A new pod will not fix the staffing shortage, but will probably only exacerbate it. But staffing is another issue for another day.
It’s clear to me our jail needs drastic attention.
If we must build an additional pod, let’s be sure we are not using that project to mask other shortcomings in the judicial system. We’ll have about a two-year wait for a pod to be constructed, so what are we doing to reduce the jail population in that time? And, wouldn’t this be a prudent time to bring in a consultant to help build a long-range plan for our jail needs?
Sincerely,
Bob Young, Former Augusta mayor
