COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Sheriff John Pollack told the Branch County Board of Commissioners Thursday that a jail overcrowding emergency will be declared. The jail has a rated designed capacity of 142 prisoners. Pollack said the Thursday general population was 149, which included 24 females.
Wednesday’s prison population was 155 and it has been over the capacity limit on a consistent basis in recent days.
The current jail has been in operation for nearly 25 years in the former Maple Lawn Medical Care facility. When the jail was moved from the old building on Pearl Street, it was termed only a temporary ten year solution until a new jail could be constructed.
The deterioration of the building on Marshall Road north of Coldwater cost the county, according to Pollack, just under $1 million a year between 2013 and 2015.
