Article published January 18, 1986

17 Prisoners Transferred From County Jail

Spartanburg County Jail population swelled to overflowing again this week during the first of two weeks of General Sessions Court and 17 males prisoners had to be transferred to the City Jail.

The 113 beds available at the jail were filed with prisoners either awaiting trial or serving sentences of 90 days or less, said the director of the facility, Larry Powers.

The State Department of Corrections, under its rules for minimum standards for prisoner space, has said the county facility can house only 82 persons.

The overcrowded situation was eased somewhat Friday when Circuit Court Judge E.C. Burnett III "agreed that he would take guilty pleas from jail," said Powers.

After the pleas were heard there was some room available for prisoners at the county facility.

Fifty-prisoners initially said they would plead guilty, but after either talking to their attorneys or thinking about I, only 30 finally agreed to plead guilty, Powers added.

He said 11 cases were disposed of with inmates either being sent to the S.C. Department of Corrections, released on time served or sentenced to probation or paid fines.

The remainder are awaiting sentences to be given early in the second week of court beginning Monday.

"We had the same situation in December," Powers said. At the time Judge Burnett also took pleas from the jail to help ease and overcrowding situation which found prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

Judge Burnett said the county's overcrowded prisoner situation was the primary reason for allowing the guilty pleas to be taken earlier, but he added that the time spent by prisoners in jail waiting for their cases to come up so they could plead guilty could have been longer than their sentences. "Those who couldn't afford bond are just entitled for their cases to be disposed of," he said.

General Sessions will continue Monday, and Burnett said he expects to take the remaining pleas. He added that he was unable to dispose of some sentences for guilty pleas due to a State Law Enforcement Department computer problem. "I understand their computers went down and we couldn't get records on some."

The jail overcrowding situation is an old one. For the past six months, Powers says the prison population has averaged about 109 prisoners. The highest number, not including the prisoners in the city jail, has been 135.

The County Jail currently has a contract with the city that allows any overflow of male and female prisoners to be housed in the city jail.

Powers said the County Jail has been cited for being overcrowded over the past several years since a minimum space standard for prisoners went into effect.

He and other county officials have been waiting for the General Assembly to act on the Omnibus Crime Bill before tackling the problem.

One provision of that bill, if adopted, requires that prisoners with sentences of a year and less be left in county facilities with the state reimbursing the local governments for the cost. That cost is expected to be less than building many new state prisons.

The bill is currently in the House Judiciary Committee where amendments are being made.

County Chairman Lachlan Hyatt urged County Legislative Delegation members last week to push the bill through so the county officials can begin making definite plans for a new facility or renovations to the current one.

County officials are unsure how the bill will effect plans for a new prison. A study of the county jail has shown that its population could increase to an average of 300.