COLDWATER – (WTVB) – Branch County Sheriff John Pollack told the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday that they have had to send some female inmates to Calhoun County due to overcrowding.
He said they had to take the action after being overcrowded in the female cell for more than seven days.
Pollack said they had to move eight female inmates out of the jail last Friday which means the county will have to pay rent to Calhoun County to house them.
He added to the best of his knowledge all of the inmates were serving sentences.
The inmate count on Wednesday was 123 which included 18 females.
Last Thursday, there were 26 females in the jail population of 130 inmates. The jail has capacity for 20 female inmates.
Since the eight female inmates were moved to Calhoun County last Friday, the jail has been just below the female inmate capacity by one or two inmates every day.
This follows the jail population dropping to 80 inmates in December thanks to the Public Defenders Office lowering bail amount. But the population went back up after the holidays when a number of defendants did not show up for court hearings and were booked on failure to appear warrants.
