02/07/12 The 2011 Jail Services Report was discussed during the County Commissioner’s meeting Monday morning. Sheriff Tom Chamberlin said there were 2,085 new adult bookings averaging out to 5.7 per day. The accumulative inmate stay was 38,169 days. This averages out to 18.30 days per inmate.
The top two reasons while people found themselves in jail last year were the same as the year before; Operating While Intoxicated and Failure to Appear. Theft moved up from number 5 to the third spot in 2011 and Driving While Suspended went from number 3 the year before to number 4 in 2011. Possession of Marijuana wasn’t even in the top 10 the year before but in 2011 showed up at number 5. Rounding out the top ten is public intox, probation violations, operating without a license, civil contempt and possession of cocaine or meth.
The Sheriff explained that two juveniles who were waived to adult court were booked into the County Jail. One suspect was a 17 year old who was arrested for child molesting and criminal deviate conduct. He was held for three days and then released on bond. The second was a 17 year old held for civil contempt and released by the Court.
The jail staff prepared 441 incident reports in 2011. These reports documented inmate fights, jail rule violations, insubordination, behavior tickets, destruction of jail property, contraband found during cell block shakedowns, as well as medical injuries involving inmates.
Sheriff Chamberlin puts inmates to work in the jail kitchen and laundry as well as mopping floors, and washing windows inside and outside. Last year he had some cleaning the parking lots and manually painting white stripes on the lots. They also mulched the landscaping areas. Inmate workers assisted the county’s building and grounds employees with carrying boxes from the basement of the County Building to a paper shredder truck and they are instrumental in the process of preparing food for the Meals on Wheels program under the supervision of the jail cooks.
