BY ROD SMITH S
pecial to Kalamazoo Gazette
ALLEGAN TOWNSHIP, Mich. — As Allegan County schedules a joint meeting to iron out differences, the Allegan Township supervisor says the township’s informal petition drive to keep the jail downtown continues.
“We’re still taking names,” Supervisor Steve Schulz said. “We probably have a few hundred at least. I haven’t added them up.”
Schulz made those remarks following the Aug. 4 township board meeting in which he announced a joint meeting of the county, Allegan Township and Allegan city had been set for 7 p.m. Aug. 21 in the Karl Zimmerman Room of the Human Services Building at the County Services Complex at Dumont Lake.
“This is supposedly putting us together on the same page,” Schulz said. “Working together on any future issues that might arise.”
“I would anticipate probably more meetings to come,” he added.
In September, the county Board of Commissioners voted to locate its proposed jail at Dumont Lake, which is in Allegan Township. Two county commissioners and Allegan Township have argued that downtown Allegan is more efficient and less expensive, although nine other commissioners disagree. The Allegan Township board in June approved a resolution favoring keeping the proposed 400-bed jail downtown.
That includes an informal petition drive. Schulz said there’s a petition in a downtown Allegan restaurant and copies were sent to every township board.
Schulz has said he thinks thousands of people want to see a downtown jail rather than one out in the country.
The current jail located in downtown Allegan has 173 beds. In 2006 the average daily census was 165 and it was considered to be overcrowded more than a fifth of the time. In the past there have been overcrowding emergencies where prisoners were let go before they finished their sentences.
Alternative-sentencing programs have kept some people from being jailed since that time, but the number of inmates keeps growing.
The jail also has been criticized as unsafe for inmates and staff with little room for rehabilitative programs or to classify inmates. The situation has generated lawsuits.
Copyright 2008 Kalamazoo Gazette