The Sunday Telegram
WORCESTER COUNTY, Mass. — The flap over overcrowding at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston gets more absurd each day.
Sheriff Guy W. Glodis now is caught between dueling judges — John S. McCann of Worcester Superior Court and Rya W. Zobel of the U.S. District Court — and their contradictory orders as to what his legal obligations are.
The jail population is governed by a 1989 federal consent decree. A ruling July 23 by Judge Zobel modifying the decree calls for the current population of about 1,450 to be 1,251 by Dec. 1.
To comply, Mr. Glodis, working with local judges and the district attorney’s office, released 100 inmates last month, and said he would continue court-authorized releases unless he was offered other options. On Wednesday, he refused to take a dozen defendants ordered held for trial in Worcester’s courthouse, saying it would place him in contempt of the consent decree. That forced a showdown with Judge McCann.
The state Department of Correction has agreed to take 30 inmates off Mr. Glodis’ hands. That helps, but it hardly begins to address the serious overcrowding of a facility built for 822 inmates.
Mary Beth Heffernan, undersecretary for criminal justice in the state Executive Office of Public Safety, said a public safety bond bill to be filed by the Patrick administration later this month will include money for a master plan to determine needs. That’s a start. Sen. Edward M. Augustus Jr., D-Worcester, says he expects the Legislature to approve a $50 million jail addition, which would ease but not end the crowding.
In the short term, Mr. Glodis’ most promising course would be to petition the federal courts for a modification to the consent de-cree. As a fallback position, he should work with the state, judges, the probation department and the district attorney’s office to develop a closely monitored home-based bracelet or a GPS program for the low-risk inmates who must be released.
That said, releasing prisoners who belong behind bars is no solution, no matter what their crimes or the low risk they pose. Yet immediate alternatives are few. Recently, Mr. Glodis and his staff arranged to move 76 inmates to other facilities by Nov. 1. However, every jail in the state is overcrowded, and sheriffs are reluctant to accept any transfers.
In any case, such efforts are stopgaps at best. It is incumbent on the state to develop a long-term strategy to address overcrowding, not just at West Boylston but at jails throughout the state.
Copyright 2007 Sunday Telegram