Pleas Reduce Prison Population

The disposal of 249 indictments by guilty pleas last week reduced the population at the county jail by 39 inmates, but Warden Larry Powers still had 10 prisoners sleeping on the floor at the facility Friday morning.

Bringing dozens of inmates to the courtroom to be ready to plead "helped a lot, but we've still got people sleeping on the floor."

With a capacity of 82 inmates, the jail was home to 115 men Friday, Powers reported. The upstairs cells include 90 iron beds, even though the state standards set the capacity at eight less. "We have all the bedding and equipment for additional inmates, they just don't have the iron frame," Powers explained.

Another 22 county prisoners, including all female county prisoners, were being housed at the city jail.

The state sets capacity at 82 because of air standards and square footage, according to the detention director.

Powers said the plan to dispose of guilty pleas from the jail was set in motion last week when Assistant Solicitor Dick Whelchel left a list of 72 inmates to be brought to court Monday. Powers said he conferred with Whelchel and Judge E.C. Burnett III last Sunday about the security risks of having that many inmates in the courtroom on the first day of General Sessions Court. It was decided to postpone the pleas until Tuesday.

By Tuesday morning the list had diminished by 10, but the probation and parole office had added three. Powers and his personnel escorted 65 inmates to the west courtroom at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. After talking with the prosecutors and Burnett, 18 of the inmates decided they wanted jury trials, so they were returned to the jail.

Of the remaining inmates, Burnett heard 23 guilty pleas Tuesday and a few more on Wednesday. After talking with the judge Wednesday evening, Powers said 40 inmates were taken to the courtroom on Thursday and 16 of them had their pleas heard. Seven of those 16 were sent to the S.C. Department of Corrections, while the remainder were released on time served, sentenced to probation or paid fines.

Powers said 11 inmates were sent to the Department of Corrections Friday morning and he hoped to send another seven Friday as soon as the paperwork was processed.

"It's helping to a large degree to reduce the large overcrowding problem we've had," Powers said, but he expected to be "filled back up again tonight."

He reports relatively few inmates serving weekend sentences, only eight or 10, but, in this season of parties and celebrations, the jail population usually increases a little more on the weekends with inmates arrested for driving under the influence or public drunkenness.

Burnett has said he will devote another day to hear guilty pleas from inmates next week and Powers reports he has 15 to 20 prisoners to take to the courtroom.

The warden reports that the cramped facilities at the jail won't allow the judge to come to the prisoners as Circuit Judge Victor Pyle did recently in an attempt to lessen the overcrowding at the Greenville detention facility. "So, we're moving the inmates to the judge."

Powers said the measures are helping to alleviate the overcrowding problems, but they certainly aren't solving them. "Everyone's working together, but we've got a large influx of people coming in and we don't have the space to handle them."