COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Sheriff John Pollack continues to take steps to address the chronic problem of having way too many female inmates at the County Jail. Pollack this week shared with Branch County Commissioners photos not for publication of the cramped conditions at the jail that prompted the County two weeks ago to transfer 14 women prisoners to the Calhoun County Jail.
The Branch County Jail in the former Maple Lawn Medical Care Facility was designed to hold 12 female inmates with six bunks and the area was later reconfigured with nine bunks for 18 prisoners. In the past couple of years, the county has consistently housed between 20 and 25 females and as high as the upper 30’s on occasion. That cell block area is 595 square feet and the Michigan Department of Corrections recommends 52 square feet per inmate and Branch County, with 25 women behind bars, has a square footage of 23. Sheriff Pollack says the situation warrants the creation of a jail overcrowding policy for the female population.
The Branch County Board of Commissioners at their working meeting on Tuesday agreed to ask a Kalamazoo consulting firm to conduct a study of the jail to allow the county board to decide what’s the best way to address the problem and what options it should consider including a new facility that might require a millage proposal that would appear on the ballot in August 2016.
