COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Sheriff John Pollack is expected to announce this week that the county’s second jail overcrowding emergency of 2015 has ended, two weeks after he made the declaration on May 28th. District Court on Friday took action either through sentence reductions or lowering bonds to have ten inmates released. That ended 25 straight days when the number of prisoners exceeded the rated design capacity of the county jail which is 142.
The inmate population to start today was 135. When the number of prisoners is beyond the capacity for 7 straight days, an overcrowding emergency exists. When Sheriff Pollack made the declaration, there were 150 prisoners behind bars. An overcrowding emergency at the jail in February lasted 3 weeks. Another one was barely avoided in April.
Last year, emergencies were declared on four different occasions.
