by Joe Sullivan
It's increasingly clear that the solution to Knox County's jail crowding problem is to stop incarcerating people whom state law says shouldn't have been locked up in the first place.
Until now, neither the Sheriff's Department, the Knoxville Police Department, nor the judiciary has been paying heed to the state Legislature's provisions for issuing citations or summons to persons rather than jailing them when they're charged with certain misdemeanors. A citation or summons directs a person to appear in court on a specified date and subjects them to an additional criminal charge for failure to show up.
The provisions of state law setting forth criteria and procedures for issuing citations stipulate that:
"In cases in which: 1) the public will not be endangered by the continued freedom of the suspected misdemeanant; 2) the law enforcement officer has reasonable proof of the identity of the suspected misdemeanant; and 3) there is no reason to believe the suspected misdemeanant will not appear as required by law; the general assembly finds that the issuance of a citation in lieu of arrest of the suspected misdemeanant will result in cost savings and increased public safety by allowing the use of jail space for dangerous individuals and/or felons and by keeping officers on patrol."
These criteria leave it up to law enforcement officers and magistrates to decide whether to cite or arrest on a case-by-case basis. But it's impossible to believe that the law calls for jailing nearly everyone charged in Knox County with everything from possession of marijuana to driving on a suspended or revoked driver's license to passing bad checks and shoplifting. Yet that's what has been happening.
"We see very few citations except for traffic violations, reports Criminal Court Clerk Martha Phillips, whose office processes all criminal cases in Knox County.
When overcrowding in his jails became an issue, one might have expected Sheriff Tim Hutchison to pursue ways to alleviate it. But given his failure to do so, the five judges of Knox County's General Sessions Court have taken the lead instead. In a memorandum to U.S. District Judge James Jarvis signed by all five of them, the judges enumerate a state rule and statute providing for summons as well as citations and also for pre-trial release of alleged misdemeanants who have been jailed initially. The memorandum concludes that:
"This rule and these statutes set forth three ways that law enforcement officials can substantially reduce the arrest and detention of persons charged with criminal offenses. These methods are not just under-used in Knox County, they are never used in Knox County."
The sessions judges went on to inform Jarvis that they are in the process of establishing guidelines and procedures for the use of summons and for pre-trial release in misdemeanor cases "with a view toward releasing as many of them as possible...if the circumstances indicate that such release would not pose an additional threat or danger to the citizens of Knox County."
Jarvis endorsed their efforts Monday at a hearing on how to remedy repeated violations of his long-standing court order capping the number of prisoners in the downtown jail at 215. "We should try to reduce the [jail] population as much as we can and then talk about long-range plans for more jail space," he told an assemblage of county officials that included Hutchison, County Executive Mike Ragsdale, and County Commission Chairman David Collins. As recently as a month ago, these same officials were talking in terms of immediate construction of a jail addition either downtown or at the county's detention facility on Maloneyville Road in Northeast Knox.
Monday's hearing also brought clarity where confusion had abounded as to the size and composition of the inmate population at each of these facilities. A special master appointed by Jarvis to get accurate data reported that, as of November 30, there were 199 inmates in the downtown jail and 619 at Maloneyville, where the capacity is 696.
Anyone who doubts that judicious use of the summons can reduce the number of people jailed need look no further than Blount County. There, close to 400 summonses a month are being issued to people charged with passing bad checks alone, according to the deputy clerk of the county's sessions court, Barbara Davis. Since Knox County's population is nearly four times larger than Blount's, the number of summonses in lieu of arrests would figure to be proportionately larger as well. True, most of those arrested and jailed here get released on bond. But some don't, and even those who do are detained for long enough to contribute to jail crowding.
Violations of the court-ordered cap at the downtown jail might appear to turn on a separate axis. That's because it is the only facility presently permitted to hold maximum-security prisoners. The special master appointed by Jarvis has confirmed Hutchison's contention that most of the prisoners in the downtown jail are there on felony charges or convictions. But it doesn't follow that felons are necessarily violent offenders who need maximum-security incarceration. For instance, the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor charge in bad check and shoplifting cases is whether the amount involved is more than $500.
Moreover, additional fencing is all that would be needed to qualify the Maloneyville detention facility as maximum security. Non-binding pledges not to take this step were made when the facility was built in the early 1990s. But recent discussions on how to enlarge jail capacity, if necessary, have included estimates that expanding Maloneyville might cost on the order of $10 million, compared to $40 million to build a larger downtown jail.
So even if freeing people charged with misdemeanors led to the transfer of more serious offenders from downtown to Maloneyville, that would represent a step that's already being contemplated. The only difference is that taxpayers would be spared an outlay of $10 million or more.
December 12, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 50
© 2002 Metro Pulse
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