CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — The Clay County Jail is nearing capacity.
Right now, the jail can hold up to 478 inmates.
TRENDING:
The daily count on July 19 was 462 inmates.
Action News Jax Christy Turner sat down one-on-one with Clay Sheriff Darryl Daniels to figure out how he plans to solve the problem.
Sheriff Daniels predicts the jail will go over capacity within the next year.
“Our numbers have been increasing by 20 and 30 people per day,” Daniels said.
He attributes the increasing inmate population to the growth in the county.
“As the population grows, people commit crimes unfortunately. You have to have somewhere to house them,” Daniels said.
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The sheriff said the office has a plan in place to utilize so-called boats, which are plastic beds on the floor.
The makeshift beds would allow the jail to hold up to 525 inmates.
In the meantime, Daniels said he’s encouraging his deputies to issue a notice to appear in misdemeanor offenses, like shoplifting, to people who meet certain criteria.
“Essentially, they are given a ticket or a field arrest in lieu of the actual physical arrest, so they’re not brought down, they don’t tax the resources of the jail,” Daniels said.
Another solution would be off-siting inmates at a jail in a different county, which comes at a cost.
“Even if we got into a situation where we got somebody else to take on some of our inmates, that still rides on the backs of the taxpayers,” Daniels said.
Sheriff Daniels said another alternative to overcrowding is building a new facility.
Clay Sheriff Darryl Daniels says they're trending toward overcrowding the jail, which can hold up to 478 inmates. I sat down one-on-one w/ Sheriff Daniels to figure out how he plans to solve the problem and I got a look from both sides of the locks, coming up at 6 on FOX30. pic.twitter.com/Tlr3CEAlpy
— Christy Turner (@ChristyANJax) July 22, 2019
Cox Media Group
