COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – One reason Branch County needs a new jail or a renovation of the current facility is the chronic problem of too many female inmates. At the most, the holding unit for women in the lockup is designed for 17 prisoners and today, the female inmate count is 32.
The Branch County Sheriff’s Department has been transferring some of the overflow of women prisoners to the Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek and the county has to pay $35 a day, per inmate, to have Calhoun house them. Medical expenses that are added to the bill. The latest transfer is expected to happen soon, possibly this weekend, and those costs are adding up for an already tight Branch County government budget.
The Branch County Board of Commissioners is expected to approve ballot language this spring and send to the county clerk by May 10, 2016 a millage question for voters to decide in the August primary if they want to support funding for a new county jail.
