Inmate population dwindling at Macomb jail
The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office and the jail it operates has avoided a positive COVID-19 diagnosis as it is taking measures to ensure protection against exposure.
Jail operators already have been performing most of the protocols ordered Sunday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and are working toward adding the one that is not, Sheriff Anthony Wickersham said Monday.
“It is challenging for inmates and employees to practice social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19, and this Executive Order will put commonsense proto
cols into place to protect our jail and juvenile detention center populations,” Whitmer said in a news release.
Incoming and outgoing inmates have been tested for COVID-19 symptoms the past few weeks. But the staff has not been tested and are “self-monitoring,” Wickersham said. Jail operators are working on obtaining thermometers to allow staff to be tested when they arrive for work.
Last week, the jail stopped allowing visitors to visit the facility at Groesbeck Highway and Elizabeth Road to see relatives by video, the sheriff said.
But they can visit remotely by video, which they could also do in the past for a fee. That fee has been waived for the duration of COVID-19 precautions, he added.
Since the response to COVID-19 began about two weeks ago, the jail has had a substantial decline in inmates. The jail population Monday was 580, a decrease from the typical population of between 800 and 900 in recent years, according to Wickersham. He said the last time the jail population was that low was the early 1990s or late 1980s. The jail was expanded in 1987.
The population has dropped due to a decline in arrests countywide because of the business shutdown and stay-at-home orders by the governor as well as efforts by judges to reduce inmate population by setting low or personal bonds in low-level cases, Wickersham said
Whitmer recommended jails release inmates who are aging or those with chronic conditions, pregnant women or people nearing their release date, and anyone incarcerated for a traffic violation and failure to appear or failure to pay.
Wickersham said there are no plans for a concerted release but that cases are monitored individually.
Despite the crime decline, domestic violence arrests have increased in areas covered by the Sheriff’s Office, Wickersham said. The department has six domestic violence arrests in a 24-hour period from Saturday to Sunday, he said.
“People who are staying together for a long period of time have to learn to deal with the stressful situation and not take it out on each other,” he said.
Deputies on patrol are only arresting when it is absolutely necessary, Wickersham added.
“We are trying to minimize contact as much as possible,” he said.
Road deputies are receiving personal protective equipment – masks, gloves and goggles — for when they come into contact with people.
Whitmer’s “stay home, stay safe” order is also resulting in a reduction in inmates being taken from the jail to prison to begin serving a felony prison term, although the Macomb Jail has only seven inmates who await prison. Transportation to and from local courts have declined substantially, too, the sheriff said.
The jail will have to reach the protocol of testing staffers before it can transport the seven inmates to the state prison system, and transportation would occur only once a week.
The new situation has had a positive financial impact on the sheriff’s office, Wickersham said. The decreased arrests and jailpopulation dip has been saving money for the sheriff’s department, Wickersham said. Overtime at the jail has dropped 60 percent, he reported.