Sheriff says loss of 50 to 75 beds will be ‘ongoing problem’
Grand Rapid Press
GRAND RAPIDS — When Kent County’s jail renovations are completed sometime in 2011, there could be 50 to 75 fewer beds. The primary jail on Ball Avenue NE can hold up to 1,170 inmates now.
That’s the reality of the Kent County Commission’s political decision to not ask voters in August for an increase in the existing 0.7893-mill jail tax, Sheriff Larry Stelma told the county’s Finance and Physical Resources Committee on Tuesday. Stelma said the renovations are necessary to upgrade aging parts of the jail, built in 1958 and 1974, but he said it makes it a challenge to manage all jail facilities, which can house a combined 1,478 inmates.
“I don’t have any explanation on how we’re going to make up the probable 50 to 75 beds. That’s going to be a constant, ongoing problem,” Stelma told the committee. “We’re going to look at some things we may be able to do with the Honor Camp and Work Release Annex, but this is going to stretch the system.”
Stelma later said he had hoped a regional jail could be built and operated collectively by Allegan, Kalamazoo and Kent counties to solve the problem. But a report expected next month will show that’s not likely to happen.
Stelma said the report is expected to recommend Allegan and Kalamazoo go ahead with regional jail plans, and that Kent County, where needs are not immediate, hold off and perhaps rent space in a regional jail when necessary.
“Their needs are right now and ours are for the future,” Stelma said of the two other counties. “We’re not in an overcrowding state like some counties are, but it’s a problem.”
Kent County has not had to release inmates because of overcrowding during Stelma’s eight years as sheriff.
Stelma said plans are to tweak guidelines allowing more prisoners to be sent to lower-security facilities such as the county’s Honor Camp and Work Release Annex or increase security at those facilities to accommodate higher-risk inmates. He said his top concern is replacing the 200 maximum-security cells being renovated in the jail’s oldest facilities.
The jail’s average daily population was 1,353 in 2007, though it has increased about 4 percent annually since 1969. County Administrator Daryl Delabbio said officials could come close to replacing all 520 beds in the jail’s old areas if the county gets a more favorable interest rate than current markets are paying and possibly by back-loading the bonds so payments are higher in future years.
Copyright 2008 Grand Rapids Press