Criminal Justice

AUDITORS TO STUDY BROWARD JAIL OVERCROWDING

Broward's jail population, long the subject of controversy, comes
under the microscope this week.

A team of federal auditors is working this week to unravel the
mysteries of how and why Broward's jail population has grown so rapidly.

Consultants from the National Institute of Corrections, a branch of
the Federal Bureau of Prisons, started work Tuesday and will continue
through Friday.

The three auditors will find a system where some 5,800 people sleep
behind bars every night, 7,800 await trial on monitored release
programs or house arrest and thousands more serve probation, never
more than a missed appointment away from returning to jail.

Broward Sheriff's Office says new jails are needed to cope with a
growing population and to prevent future overcrowding. Critics have
said the local judiciary and law enforcement can take steps to reduce
the existing jail population, rather than build space for a larger one.

Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne is planning construction for a new
1,000-bed jail, due in 2009, and has plans to ask the county
commission for another facility designed for inmates with special
needs or mental illnesses.

Jenne invited the NIC team to conduct an assessment of county jails
last September, when inmate population briefly surged over capacity.
Since then, the jail population has returned to normal levels.

Critics say new jails often benefit politicians and lobbyists, who
can influence which firms get construction and service contracts for the jail.

Even so, Jenne needs to actively try and resolve problems in the jail
system, or he and the county could face punishment.

Under the terms of a class-action lawsuit filed by Broward jail
inmates in 1976 and settled in 1993, a federal judge monitors the
county jails and can impose fines on the county and the sheriff if he
finds the lockups in unacceptable shape.

In a Sept. 20 letter to the NIC, Jenne asked for help and said his
agency was "concerned that increased overcrowding will lead to an
unstable, less secure jail environment."

Overcrowding has many causes, say jail observers, so auditors are
unlikely to find just one thing to blame.

Broward's public defender, Howard Finkelstein, says in his mind,
reducing the jail population is simple: grant pre-trial release for
offenders who can't afford bail.

For the last year, his office has placed extra attorneys in daily
magistrate hearings to argue for lower bonds and get their clients
out of jail on pre-trial release. Finkelstein estimates the effort
has resulted in the release of 8-10 more people a day.

"The only reasons to hold people in jail is because they're a threat
to the public or there are reasons to believe they won't show up in
court," Finkelstein said. "Having money doesn't mean you are a threat
and having money doesn't mean you will show up in court."

Others say auditors should be alarmed by the growing length of the
average inmate's stay -- now 31 days, up from 24 days in 2002.

BSO officials cannot say what has caused the increase in inmate stay
and hope the NIC team's report, due sometime after this week's visit,
will isolate the culprits and offer recommendations to help prevent
future surges.

Dr. Henry "Hank" Mack, longtime chairman of the county's Public
Safety Coordinating Council, said if he could have named a main cause
for the jail's growing population, he would have done so long ago.

"What I want is a set of new eyes to look at us. Hopefully those eyes
are going to tell us something we don't know," he said.

Auditors will look at all the agencies involved with the jail. That
means auditors could direct some of their recommendations at local
judges, who have worked in recent months to reduce jail population by
speeding up the time between arrests and hearings for probation violators.

Broward's chief judge, Dale Ross, meets with auditors today, but Ross
- -- who also holds the title of jail-cap judge, the courthouse's
official monitor of the inmate count -- has long held that managing
the jail population is the sheriff's job.

"We're all in this together, but the sheriff and the court perform
different functions," said Ross, adding: "jail issues are really not
court issues."

Finkelstein, who's often at loggerheads with Ross, disagrees with the
chief judge and says the judiciary's actions have the greatest impact
on jail population.

"The judiciary is the gatekeeper, [judges] are the ones who determine
who gets out of jail and who stays in," said Finkelstein. "It's not
the state attorney, it's not the public defender, and it's certainly
not the jail."

Miami Herald staff writer Breanne Gilpatrick contributed to this
report.