OVERCROWDING PLAGUES COUNTY JAIL IN MACON

Officials Say Jails Weren't Designed To Hold Long-Term Prisoners.

MACON (AP) -- The Bibb County jail is so crowded that the sheriff wasn't
surprised when a dangerous prisoner escaped in May.

A man facing 40 charges related to shootings and thefts escaped for 63
hours that month, and he never should've been in that jail, Sheriff Jerry
Modena said.

Local jails are intended to hold accused criminals only for a few months,
but increasingly they're being used to house inmates for years, even
inmates that have violent records and belong in tighter-security prisons.

The man who escaped from the Bibb County jail, James Kevin Keel, had been
living there more than a year. He was kept in a special cell and checked
every 15 minutes, but Modena said he still worried about him.

Keel is now back in the jail awaiting a September trial, but Modena doesn't
feel any better about his ability to keep Keel locked up.

"I wonder what he's doing when I go to bed at night, and in the morning
when I come in I ask what he's doing," Modena told The Macon Telegraph.

Keel's escape highlights the gap between the demands placed on local jails
today compared to the county lockups of the past. Holding prisoners longer
while they await trial or prison beds creates perpetual overcrowding. This
in turn can make violent prisoners more belligerent and deputies more harried.

To alleviate the problem, Modena has asked other law enforcement agencies
to avoid making arrests for misdemeanor offenses, such as drug possession
or public drunkenness.

"I'll tell them: Write citations. Don't bring 'em in," Modena said. "If our
decision is to hold an armed robber or a public drunk, the choice is obvious."

Modena added, "They know when this jail's loaded up, we've got to be
selective. If I'm under a court order and my people are too crowded, I'll
block the jail. They can hold them in the parking lot if they want to."

Bibb County is under a federal court order to control its population, said
John Southern, director of jail assistance for the Georgia Sheriffs'
Association.

Bibb's jail is permitted to house no more than 585 inmates, but Modena said
his office has struggled since January to keep the number that low,
sometimes failing. During its worst period, the jail exceeded the limit off
and on during a 46-day span that ended July 3.

If the county continues violating its court order by housing too many
inmates, a federal judge can decide to hold Modena in contempt or fine the
county each day the jail is overfilled.

Although jails were once a place where locals served short sentences for
misdemeanors, about 75 percent of Bibb's inmates are felons.

Many sheriffs transfer their tougher cases to more modern jails in other
counties when they believe their own security is inadequate, Southern said.
But Modena said this costs too much to be practical.

Although the state pays the jail $20 for each day it houses a state
prisoner, the actual cost of housing an inmate at the jail is $45.82 a day,
said sheriff's Maj. Russell Nelson.

"Because the state has space problems," Southern said, "the poor taxpayer
of Bibb is paying for it."

Lloyd Spickard, jail coordinator for the Georgia Department of Corrections,
said that Georgia's backlog of inmates is the smallest in at least 13
years. In 1989, there were 5,000 inmates waiting in county jails; in 1999,
there were about 4,250.

Spickard said the backlog is only about 1,700 now, but state reports for
June listed the number at 3,273.

Spickard said Bibb should not be hurting. He cited the state's June jail
population report, which showed the jail only 81 percent full.

"Bibb is better than it's ever been," said Spickard. "I don't know why
they're squawking."

Modena disputed the state statistics.

"I have no earthly idea what he's talking about," Modena said. "We have to
call the state constantly to come pick (inmates) up. We've told the state,
'We'll haul them out of here ourselves if you'll tell us where to haul them.'"

Many of the 148 functioning jails in Georgia are stretched at the seams. A
June state report showed 52 jails were operating over capacity.

Overcrowding affects the courts, too. Otis Scarbary, State Court solicitor,
acknowledged that he looks for other punishments besides jail for minor
offenders. Judges also set bail lower and rush attorney appointments for
those who can't make bond, he said.

Scarbary said that sometimes the jail's space constraints might have
resulted in sentences that were too light.

"It's problematic," he said. "When you've got only one slot and multiple
offenders, it's difficult to decide who should be in jail longer."