LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville Metro Corrections is a place for dangerous criminals who shouldn't be on the streets, and the director of the city's jail agrees.

A letter was sent to Jefferson County District Court judges from "Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice." It was signed by the ACLU of Kentucky, Voices of Community Activists and Leaders (VOCAL-KY), Louisville Buddhist Justice Collective, Kentucky Equal Justice Center, Fairness Campaign, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression and others.

"If the person is not a specific, serious imminent threat to the public, we're asking that that individual be released and that they get the resources they need out in the community," Kungu Njuguna, ACLU policy strategist, said.

The organizations are calling for people in Metro Corrections for low level offenses to be released. They are concerned that more people are going to die. At least 10 people died behind bars since Nov. 2021. Some died by suicide. Others overdosed.

In an interview with WDRB about the drug problems in the jail, Corrections director Jerry Collins said people with drug addictions shouldn't be there. He agrees that LMDC should be a place for dangerous criminals who shouldn't be on the streets.

"Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice" said that low-level offenders - like people with drug addictions or mental health issues shouldn't be there in the first place. Instead, they feel those offenders should get the help they need on the outside.

Collins agreed that it's the serious criminals that need to be behind bars - not the addicted or mentally ill. 

There needs to be an alternate place for them to go," Collins said. "It doesn't need to be jail. Jails turned into the largest mental health facilities, the largest detox facilities in the community. We gotta think about who we're putting in jail. We need dangerous folks in jail, people we're scared of."

The groups also want judges to reconsider cash bails, the use of bench warrants and the practice of holding people for pretrial for low-level offenses.

"It is appalling that we arrest and hold people for failure to pay restitution they cannot afford. It is abusive to hold people as punishment for being poor, Black, or unhoused, or suffering from a mental illness or addiction," the group wrote in the letter to Louisville judges.

The groups are asking judges to "save lives" by releasing every person on an unsecured bond that isn't a imminent danger to the community.

The ACLU said it's a problem everyone needs to act on. 

"It is a community jail and it's going to take a community response to solve what is going on there," Njuguna said.

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