Sheriff calls overcrowded county jail inhumane as inmates wait years for legal resolution

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    FLINT, MI (WJRT) — The Genesee County Jail is receiving new exposure to an ongoing problem.

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist retweeted a Detroit News article about some inmates waiting more than four years for trial in in Genesee County.

Gilchrist said it’s an issue in jails across the state and plans to outline ways to fix it in January.

“We’re warehousing mentally ill people, mental health patients,” Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell said.

In June 2011, Genesee County Jail inmates were transported to Midland County because the jail in Flint was overcrowded. Not much has changed eight years later.

“I still have inmates elsewhere,” Pickell said.

The inmates are in Sanilac, Saginaw, Lapeer and Shiawassee counties waiting for a legal resolution.

“They’re sleeping on the floor,” Pickell said.

In areas where the limit should be 20 people, Pickell said there are as many as 60.

“It’s inhumane,” he said. “The problem is exacerbated by, we can’t move cases fast enough. Eighty percent of the people in the jail have opioid problems. The average education level is the ninth grade.”

Pickell said the average stay is 176 days. Ninety-three percent of the population is unsentenced and the jail, which holds 580 inmates, was overcrowded for 305 days in the past year.

Some inmates have been there more than four years waiting for a trial. Others for three years and so forth.

“Four years, three years, two-and-a-half years in jail, presumed innocent, waiting to get your day in court. Is that a speedy trial? Is that what we call justice?” Pickell said.

Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said it’s important to remember sometimes the process is slower because of the inmate.

“There’s a 180 day constitutional speedy trial rule,” Leyton said. “But there’s many exceptions to that. For example, if the defendant asks for something that could slow the process down, 180 days is waived. And that happens a lot.”

Leyton’s office, which reviews 3,500 to 4,000 felony cases each year, often has to request additional evidence from police.

“The problem starts with the city of Flint, where most of the cases originate. The city doesn’t have enough money to hire enough police officers to get the job done,” Leyton said. “If there was going to be something that could be done to aid the speed of an individual getting to trial, it would be to fund in-house investigators for the prosecuting attorney. I’ve never had that luxury.”

“I think it’s something that is beginning to become inhumane. It can be dangerous on both ends for the individuals that are being housed as well as the individuals that are housing them,” Leon El-Alamin said.

El-Alamin is the founder of M.A.D.E. Institute, a Flint nonprofit organization that helps inmates while in jail and prison and once they get out. He provides housing for returning citizens and at-risk youth — and job training, too.

“We have to focus in these communities, small cities like Flint, that has a high population of mental issues going on and really begin to address that,” El-Alamin said. “Look at it from a standpoint of treatment and addressing the trauma issues.”

Pickell said he’s been talking to the Genesee County Board of Commissioners about overcrowding but hasn’t seen any real progress.

It’s not just the concerns for inmates being overcrowded, but the manpower needed to take care of this population means 70 to 100 hours of overtime every day.

Jail populations have shifted in recent years with more and more prisoners being sent to rural jails rather than urban areas.

According to a report from the non-profit group Vera Institute of Justice, jail populations in urban areas have fallen 18 percent since 2013. Jail populations in rural areas are up 27 percent in that same time period.

In parts of the U.S., that increase can be attributed to the growing opioid crisis.

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