Jail overcrowding remains the norm with no sign of relief

HILLSDALE COUNTY — Jail overcrowding remains the norm in Hillsdale County.

Sheriff Scott Hodshire indicated Monday, Jan. 8, the jail population had reached 78 inmates, nine over the 67 dedicated beds for inmates in the county of 45,000.

Two of the jail’s inmates were pending a transfer to the Michigan Department of Corrections Monday and one was awaiting transfer to the Calhoun County Jail.

Hodshire said part of the issue today is that law enforcement is still trying to work through a warrant backlog that spiked at 770 outstanding warrants in Hillsdale County after the COVID-19 pandemic placed restrictions on the jail and outbreaks amongst the inmate population limited lodging.

But the warrant backlog issue only compounds an existing need for an addition or larger, updated facility. A study commissioned over two decades ago and then shelved by the Hillsdale County Board of Commissioners determined the county needed a bigger jail at that time.

The jail was built in the 1960s during a time when county commissioners could not imagine the need for a facility larger than the 67 bed jailhouse, 165 W. Fayette St. in Hillsdale.

More: Hundreds of arrest warrants are stacking up in Hillsdale County as jail overcrowding becomes norm

While Hodshire has lobbied for the current board of commissioners to address the issue, there has been little action taken to correct it.

Commissioner Brad Benzing, the commissioners’ public safety committee chair, said discussions about the jail and the need for an addition to the existing facility have been ongoing for two decades, yet the issue persists.

To keep the jail in compliance with state regulations aimed at easing overcrowding, Hodshire works closely with the county’s judges to reduce the inmate population as needed.

The judicial system overall, according to Benzing, is moving away from incarceration when possible.

“We have established programs such as our drug treatment court and the newly added domestic violence treatment court and are in the first steps of creating a community corrections program,” Benzing said. “The hope is that these programs will reduce the number of inmates that we need to house.”

As the overcrowding issue complicates and frustrates the criminal justice system, the county is further away from seeing relief than ever before.

Work to rehabilitate the historic Hillsdale County Courthouse in downtown Hillsdale has exceeded $10 million — largely funded by American Rescue Plan Act funds administered by the federal government to ease economic burdens during COVID-19 — and the commissioners have only a few years left to find a new home for the 2B District Court after the county sold the Courthouse Annex Building.

More: Historic Hillsdale courthouse renovations continue

“At this time in light of the need to complete the renovations at the Historic courthouse as well as the need to secure a location for the District Court, I do not see anything moving forward in regard to an addition or a replacement for the current jail within the next 10 years,” Benzing said.

Hodshire said the county could technically house sentenced inmates in surrounding jails.

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Branch County has space available in their new 220-bed jail facility.

But this would cost Hillsdale County $35 per day per inmate. Lenawee County’s cost is slightly higher.

“If we send 20 sentenced inmates over to Branch County that would be $700 a day times 365 days a year which equals $255,500 a year and the county of Hillsdale simply cannot afford that,” Hodshire said. “If we did that, we would backfill with outstanding warrants which would put us back to being overcrowded.”

— Contact Reporter Corey Murray at cmurray@hillsdale.net or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @cmurrayHDN.

This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Jail overcrowding remains the norm with no sign of relief