Jail Space Running Thin

The aging Jackson County Adult Detention Center has more heads than beds, but Sheriff Mike Byrd says he'll find a place for criminals even if the jail is overcrowded.

By: Christian Stapleton | WKRG-TV
Published: September 13, 2009

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Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd says
he'll find a place for criminals even if his jail is overcrowded.
But that's getting harder to do at the Jackson County Adult
Detention Center, which is 40 years old and has far more heads than
beds.
Byrd and other officials are trying to come up with a way to
fund a new jail. Voters refused a $22 bond issue that would have
paid for a new facility last year.
The inmate population just keeps growing.
This past Friday, there were 441 inmates in the 296-bed
facility.
Byrd says not having enough jail space is a danger to the
public.
The Jackson County Board of Supervisors is looking for a way to
pay for the 540-bed jail that was proposed last year