COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Sheriff John Pollack declared a jail overcrowding state of emergency on Wednesday after the jail population exceeded its rated design capacity of 142 prisoners for over seven straight days.
The jail was in excess of its capacity from September 4 through Monday, September 12, 2016.
The largest amount of prisoners during that time was last Thursday when 150 prisoners were being held.
The Sheriff has notified the local court judges by letter of the emergency as well as the prosecutor’s office, county commissioners and other police agencies in the county.
If the overcrowding persists for more than a couple of weeks, the judges usually order a release of inmates to reduce the jail population by 20 percent of capacity as regulations require with sentence reductions or lower bonds.
In Branch County, that means the prisoner count has to go down to 127.
