BRANCH COUNTY, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Sheriff John Pollack today declared a jail overcrowding emergency. It’s the second one of 2015 and it happens when the number of inmates exceeds the rated design capacity of 142 prisoners for the aging lockup for over 7 straight days. The current situation at the county jail developed starting on May 18th with 144 inmates and peaked at 151 five days later and has stayed at 150 the last three days.
The Sheriff today 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% 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.
An emergency declaration at the jail in February lasted 3 weeks. Another one was barely avoided in April. Last year, emergencies were declared on four different occasions.
