POLK JAILS OVERCROWDED DESPITE CRIME DROP

Stretching Budget And Staff

BARTOW -- After holding steady for the past four years, the number of
inmates in Polk County's jails has shot up by about 20 percent since last
summer.

Extra beds have been brought in to accommodate a daily average of 2,300
inmates, up from about 1,900 inmates last summer.

Many days the number is higher. The South County Jail in Frostproof had
1,506 inmates Friday, nearly 500 above normal. Another 1,057 inmates were
in Bartow's Central County Jail, which normally holds 800. That was a total
of 2,563 inmates.

The influx has forced the Sheriff's Office to open the last 200bed wing at
the South County Jail, where many cells that once held two people now have
three.

Sheriff Lawrence W. Crow Jr. said the county jails can handle even more
inmates and that violence in the jails has not spiked this summer.

But at a cost of $39 per day to house an inmate, the hundreds of extra
mouths to feed are stretching the sheriff's budget and jail staff.
Alternatives to jail are being considered, Crow said.

They include electronic monitoring -- rather than incarceration -- for men
and women accused of nonviolent crimes.

"We just can't afford to keep everyone in jail," Crow said, noting that the
monitoring is much less expensive than housing an inmate. The jail
population typically peaks in the summer months, and decreases in the fall.
But the sudden jump this summer is puzzling because crime in the county is
dropping.

Crow said one reason the jail population is up is the Sheriff's Office
PROCAP program, which aims to prevent crime rather than react to crimes
that already occurred.

Crow said that each day deputies are assigned to a neighborhood or street,
based upon where crime is occurring. All deputies available work the
problem area, Crow said, including traffic and warrant deputies.

"We've made a lot more arrests than we have in the past," Crow said. And
while Crow said he wants to reduce the jail population, he also said that
making arrests and filling jails helps keep crime down.

"It simply shows there's a payoff," he said. "If we are going to keep crime
down, we have to keep the jail population up."

The Sheriff's Office accounts for about 51 percent of the county's arrests,
Crow said.

The city police departments are also making more arrests, many of them
related to drugs, he said.

Doug Bark, a founder of Citizens Law Enforcement Watch in Polk County, a
law enforcement watchdog group, said officers are arresting too many people
without good reason.

"Officers don't have justifiable reasons," Bark said. "They are arresting
people they don't have a case on. They could cut this (jail) population if
they are more careful. Officers don't have to be accountable."

Judges Affect Situation

Crow said judges' decisions play a role in the high jail population. Just
two years ago the South County Jail opened, providing what appeared to be
plenty of extra space.

"Now judges are of the opinion they have the jail space . . . they used to
not (have)," Crow said.

Criminal defense lawyer John Liguori also pointed to judges when asked to
explain the inmate increase.

"The jail population continues to increase based on the attitudes of the
judiciary," Liguori said.

He said judges should consider alternatives to putting people behind bars.
"I'd rather see them (those arrested) doing community service," he said.

Sheriff's Col. Grady Judd said the jump in the jail population could be
caused by judges being stricter and a "glut of folks (who) have abused
their probation."

Chief Judge Ron Herring acknowledged that people who violate their
probation and are rearrested are not given bond.

But he said the view that judges are being tougher with their sentences is
unfounded.

"Judges evaluate each case on its own merit," Herring said. "I honestly
feel that judges look at each individual case."

Herring said jail populations increase and decrease in cycles. "I don't
know of anything you can put your thumb on . . . other than the county
continues to grow," he said.

Of 2,507 Polk inmates in jail one day earlier this month, 1,489 were
awaiting trial and 1,018 were serving sentences. Inmates sentenced to less
than a year do their time at the jail rather than a state prison. At the
same time last year, there were 1,905 inmates. Of those, 686 were serving a
sentence and 1,219 were awaiting trial, the Sheriff's Office said.

That breaks down to about 60 percent of the population awaiting trial in
both years.

Judd said most inmates, if not serving a sentence, are in jail because they
either face serious charges, have violated their probation, or were
previously released from jail and failed to appear at court.

Crime Figures Drop

While the jail population is up, the reported crime rate in unincorporated
Polk County is down about 4 percent, Judd said. Reported crime also was
down 3.6 percent in Lakeland for the first half of the year, Lakeland
police said.

"We have more people locked up," Judd said. "People in jail don't commit
crimes . . . They aren't breaking into your homes or businesses."

Assistant State Attorney Wayne Durden said the State Attorney's Office is
only "slightly ahead" in the number of felony cases it has filed this
summer, compared to this time last year.

But crime statistics and their relation to the jail population can be
misleading, according to University of South Florida criminology professor
Marson Johnson.

He said many offenders are in jail because of drug and domestic violence
offenses, which are not included in the offenses that law enforcement
agencies use for crime statistics.

"As long as administrators and politicians follow the-get-tough-on- crime
routine," Johnson said, "I don't see any let-up."

Sheriff Crow agreed. "Society has gotten tougher on DUIs and spouse
abusers," Crow said. "As a result, many of those people are in jail."

Johnson said there's not just one reason the jail population is up. "I
certainly don't have the answer," he said. "The people who committed the
crime can tell you why it's up."

Crowding Elsewhere

The Hillsborough County jail population is also up, with 4,285 inmates
early last week, about 200 to 300 more than normal, said Maj. Steve
Saunders, the acting detention department commander for the Sheriff's Office.

"This exceeds our projections," he said.

Saunders said there has been a gradual increase since the beginning of the
year. "We don't have a ready answer as to why." However, Orange County's
jail population of about 3,800 is 8 percent lower than last year, said Don
Bjoring, manager of professional services at the jail.

Pat Jablonski, a research statistician for corrections in Orange County,
said the county experienced a 14 percent increase in its jail population in
1999.

It wasn't until 2001 that the population went back down. But it has not
dropped as low as it was prior to the 1999 spike, he said. Orange County
officials and University of Central Florida researchers tried to find a
cause for the sharp increase.

But no one could identify just one factor, Bjoring said.

Jablonski said the county jail population is plotted over a decade, and
there is usually an increase, then a decrease followed by a plateau.

"I suspect that is not an uncommon model," Bjoring said.

High inmate population isn't limited to county jails, however.

Florida's prison population also continues to grow.

The state's prison system climbed 3.9 percent in 2002 with 75,210 inmates
at the end of the year. Corrections officials last week said that figure
has grown to 77,188.

Nationally, there were more than 2.1 million people in prison last year.
That's a 2.6 percent increase over 2001, according to a report released by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Tougher sentencing guidelines are keeping more Florida inmates behind bars
longer, state corrections officials said.

Based on inmate projections released in July that are higher than expected,
the Department of Corrections asked the state for extra funds.

This month, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill that gave the Department of
Corrections an extra $66 million. He said the agency may have to ask for
more money next year, depending on additional prisoner projections to be
announced in September.

Possible Solutions

Polk Sheriff's Office officials are looking at ways to reduce the jail
population.

One alternative being studied are ankle bracelets with Global Positioning
Systems. The bracelets would be assigned to some offenders arrested on
nonviolent charges, who would then be released from jail but closely
supervised and monitored.

"You can tell where they are at all times," Judd said. "This monitoring
technology is new and being evaluated."

Sheriff Crow said it costs about $9 a day to monitor an inmate with an
ankle bracelet. That's about $30 per day less than keeping an inmate in jail.

"There's no question we will have to turn to some electronic monitoring in
the future," Crow said. "I really think that's the future." In the future,
Crow said, violent offenders will be in jail, and those arrested on
misdemeanors would likely be tracked electronically. This particular GPS
would be similar to house arrest, Judd said. Those placed on GPS monitoring
would likely not be able to go about their normal daily activities.

"The rules would be set by the court," Judd said. "I am convinced that
there will be limitations."

Liguori, the Bartow lawyer, said he thinks the ankle bracelets could be an
effective option.

"There are certain offenses and certain individuals . . . where it would
work very well," he said. "Why should the tax payers pay the burden?"