Monroe County Jail inmates spend most of their time locked up in their cells.
Newly booked-in people who don't post bond or get released by a judge spend five days in isolation cells, a COVID-19 precaution the local jail hasn't lifted, although some others in the area have.
People housed in minimum- and medium-security cellblocks spend four of every 24 hours in the dayroom area outside their two-person cells. That's where they can make phone calls, socialize, watch TV, access showers and use video conferencing kiosks to visit with family.
The other 20 hours are spent behind solid metal doors with small glass panels, with a cellmate always an arm's-length away. Each cell has a bunk bed, a stainless steel toilet and sink, and a small table. Meals, delivered around 5 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. are served inside cells instead of at the tables out in the cellblock commons area. It's more efficient, jail commander Sam Crowe said.
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Cellblocks crowded with 32 men charged with different levels of felonies leads to increased incidents of threats, aggression and fights inside a deteriorating and understaffed jail, Crowe said. Hence, the 20-hour lockdowns, which Crowe said conform to state jail regulations regarding inmate care.
Another 50 to 60 inmates who have gotten in trouble while in the jail, along with some who requested a more isolated existence, spend 23 hours locked down and just one hour each day outside their cells. The hour moves ahead every day; if someone is allowed out of their cell 1 a.m. today, it would be 2 a.m. the next day. These prisoners, too, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in their cells.
COVID-19 safety concerns are not what led to the lockdowns beyond the five-day isolation window, but Crowe said the pandemic has played a substantial role.
Slow courts, longer jail stays, more serious charges
For the past two years, judges in Monroe County, like those around the country, have released many nonviolent pretrial inmates from local jails who in the past would have been held on bond or probation violations.
The practice helped keep the numbers down, and stemmed the spread of COVID-19. And because the pandemic has slowed the judicial system, the jail is housing more people charged with serious and violent offenses whose pending cases remain unresolved.
"We've had to reduce the total number of hours out to accommodate everyone getting out of their cells," Crowe said. "The dynamics have changed. We used to have 50 to 60% that were minimum security. Before the pandemic, we would have 12 to 15 maximum security inmates, and that has doubled or even tripled while our minimum security inmates have gone way down."
Before the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, the jail housed an average of 280 people. Even reduced by 50 or so now — the jail population was 235 on Aug. 29 — the jail is still crowded, and struggling with an increasing number of people charged with serious crimes.
"So no, we don't have as many inmates but the ones here have much higher security needs, and we're still not fully staffed," Crowe said. "The way the jail is designed, 32 to a cellblock, we can't let them out at the same time. It creates too many problems."
History of the jail:Problems with the Monroe County Jail have been documented in news articles for decades
Inmates file formal complaint
While the lockdowns may make managing the jail easier, inmates spending most of their time inside a cell aren't happy. Count Kiel Sheppard and other prisoners in the jail's I-Block, for nonviolent offenders, among them. They filed a grievance in June challenging the policy, and still are waiting for a response from the jail hierarchy.
"We are let out, half of us, in the morning, for three hours and then three days later it switches to 7 to 11 in the evening," Sheppard said during a phone interview from the jail. "They lock us down for meals. We eat in there, one at the desk and the other guy sitting on the ground or with their tray on their lap on the bed," he said.
"There's tables in the cellblock. But it's easier for them (jail staff) to feed us in our cells. At other jails, they all sit down and eat together at a table."
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Sheppard knows. He's been incarcerated in stints at jails in Lawrence, Brown and Monroe counties since November. He has several criminal offenses pending, including possession of methamphetamine and resisting arrest. He pleaded guilty Aug. 25 in Lawrence Superior Court to possession of paraphernalia as part of a plea agreement that dismissed three other drug charges and gave him 36 days behind bars, already served.
Right now, he's in the Monroe County Jail with no bond for getting arrested while having other charges pending. He has a hearing set in November and hopes he can get his cases resolved with help from his public defender.
He said the five-day lockdown for new inmates is unfair. "The first five days we're locked up is the most crucial time. You have to try to get bail money together, tell your boss you won't be at work, call someone to let your dog out. The first five days set the pace for the rest of the stay. You get 15 minutes time out of cell a day in quarantine."
The five-day isolation most county jails implemented during the pandemic has been suspended at jails in Lawrence and Brown counties, where people being booked in are screened for COVID symptoms and tested if they have any. The jails in nearby Greene and Owen counties still isolate new inmates for five days. Morgan County has a 7-day COVID-19 isolation period for inmates booked into the jail there.
Crowe defended the policy, saying someone exposed to COVID-19 could test negative during the first few days of being infected. "We've done an excellent job keeping it (COVID) out of the jail and we will continue trying to do that," Crowe said. "There are still a lot of cases being reported in Monroe County."
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Sheppard complained there aren't any AA or NA meetings offered at the jail, where many in custody suffer from substance use issues. During a recent tour of the jail, Crowe confirmed that such space is lacking, and needed. He wants programming to return.
"There's nothing like that available to us," Sheppard said. "Even church, which they do let in, is just one cellbock tier every other week."
He said since there's been no in-person visits since the pandemic started, "People drift apart and they lose the connections they need when they get back out."
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Video calls home cost 21 cents a minute, and inmates without money in their jail commissary account can't pay for them. Cellblocks have phones that send text messages, but they cost, too.
"A lot of guys are in here for drugs and mental health problems, and they have messed-up relationships and they don't have no one on the outside to make calls like that to," Sheppard said.
No one acknowledged the inmates' grievance, Sheppard said. "We have a right to have it heard and resolved, and then to appeal. We waited three weeks and filed a written petition and we have not heard back. It was signed by 30 inmates."
Crowe said he's aware of the complaint, but it hasn't been all the way through the grievance process and hasn't reached his desk. When asked this week, Crowe said he stands by the current jail lockdown policy.
"I think they don't have much to stand on since the state standard is one hour per day and we give them (in I-Block) four," the jail commander said.
If he denies the demands in the grievance, which seeks 8 hours out-of-cell time, the prisoners can appeal to the sheriff.
Describing himself as "college educated, well-versed in the justice system and aware of what my rights are," 37-year-old Sheppard said he hopes to see the lockdown ease. He'll be jailed into November, maybe longer, so there's time.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
