By Alba Rosa
The Macon Telegraph
MACON, Ga. — Sheriff David Davis shared support for Macon - Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller’s initiative to address concerns at the Bibb County Jail, and commented on progress made after a drug bust investigation and a grand jury review on Monday.
The grand jury shared in court records from June 12 that some of the conditions inside the Bibb County Jail were “disgusting and inhumane,” which were commented on before by the local NAACP and protestors who advocated for inmates’ rights outside of the jail and the city hall.
Miller has made progress, however. He’s launched initiatives to address those concerns, such as releasing up to 150 inmates using ankle monitors and announcing a search for architectural design proposals to expand the facility.
Davis says that he has high hopes “for any initiative that may help the jail,” he told The Telegraph Monday.
Davis stressed, however, that many of the inmates are housed at the jail for dangerous offenses and are incarcerated because they are a danger to the community.
“But, if there are any that can be released out on bond or some type of monitoring, particularly probation ... I’m willing to assist with that,” Davis told The Telegraph.
Concerns about the conditions have been worsening after inmates suffered from suspected overdoses, were assaulted by other inmates with boiling water in the face and a fatal jail fight that killed one inmate and injured four others.
No more paper mail amid K-2 concerns
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday that an investigation into K-2 being distributed inside the jail led to the arrests of 11 individuals who were allegedly part of a conspiracy to distribute K-2 inside the facility as well as cocaine throughout Macon.
Synthetic marijuana, more commonly known as K-2, has been a topic of concern since Stephen Fossett’s death inside the jail in May last year. The man had ingested K-2 before the struggle with deputies that led two of them to deploy their tasers toward Fossett. Because the K-2 made Fossett act erratically toward the deputies, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Anita Howard ruled that the two deputies would not be criminally charged for their actions that day. Fossett’s family’s attorneys, Mawuli Davis and Nathan Fitzpatrick, criticized the sheriff’s office for inmates’ accessibility to drugs like K-2.
However, Davis indicated that more would need to be done to reduce K-2 inside the facility, as it is a “cat and mouse game, all the way,” he told The Telegraph.
K-2 is coated in paper and odorless, which led Davis to implement a program in which the inmates will no longer receive paper mail. Instead, their mail would be digitized for the inmates to view on their tablets.
“Of course, you have some instances where staff or other people (who) get into the jail, vendors and whatnot, bringing some in,” Davis said. “We’re always having an investigation or watching some allegation of staff or vendor bringing in something. But typically the K-2 comes in through mail ... but that’s gonna be alleviated here in the near future.”
Sheriff agrees with grand juror’s review of jail
Davis responded to what the grand jury found in the jail during their annual inspection, explaining that he takes their feedback very seriously and “we work very quickly to address those issues,” he told The Telegraph Monday.
He addressed a section of the review, where they referred to C100 block as “disgusting and inhumane,” to which he agreed. However, even though the jurors mentioned that it was overpopulated, “it was not even as full (as it could be),” Davis said. It seemed to have appeared overpopulated to the jurors due to the block’s low ceilings, the walls being “so closed in,” and the small cells, he told The Telegraph.
“Those blocks have 20 cells in them, and that particular block did not even have 20 inmates in it, really,” Davis said. “Everybody is in sort of crowded conditions that even when it’s not even at its normal capacity, it makes you feel like it’s overpopulated.”
The jurors questioned whether part of the women’s annex could accommodate the men’s annex at the jail, but Davis said that it wouldn’t be feasible. Inmates must be separated by gender, and each annex has a specific number of cells allocated for each gender.
“We can’t repurpose those areas for men, and nor could we repurpose some of the areas for women,” according to Davis. “It’s sort of built the way it’s built, right?”
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