LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Two years after Louisville’s jail saw a spike in inmates, officials say the average daily population is down significantly.
But it might not last.
In 2017, Louisville Metro Corrections could see daily inmate counts pushing 2,400. The jail has 1,793 beds.
According to data provided by Metro Corrections, the average daily inmate population through February this year is down to 1,855.
“In April of 2016, we began to see this uptick in population,” Corrections Director Mark Bolton said. “Over the course of the last six months or so, that has come down to pre-April levels. It's almost like we're back to normal.”
Bolton cites the Kentucky Department of Corrections doing a better job of moving inmates out of Louisville’s jail and into state facilities. He said his jail was holding around 500 state inmates at one point. Now, he said, the number is half of that.
“Certainly, the movement of state inmates in a more expedient fashion has been probably the key to bringing some of the crowded living conditions down,” he said.
He also credits a program called “The Bail Project” that launched last year in Louisville and is aimed at providing bail money up to $5,000 for inmates accused of low-level crimes.
Whether the trend of declining populations can continue at Metro Corrections, however, is in doubt.
“It's taken a lot of work with our system stakeholders and a lot of communication and a lot of problem-solving,” Bolton said. “That doesn't mean that it won't happen again. I'm confident it will at some point.”
Over the past two years, as inmate numbers spiked, Metro Corrections opened a 1950s-era jail above the Louisville Metro Police Department headquarters. That facility has a history of plumbing and heating and cooling problems. However, that space has not been used since July.
“That has been deactivated since last summer," Bolton said. "So, assuming we don't have to open it before July, we'll have had that closed for a year."
Bolton said the department has used “tens of thousands” of dollars to upgrade the space in case it needs to be used again, which could be a possibility.
“You eventually hit a point of diminishing returns, and we could be very close to that right now,” Bolton said
Jail leaders believe in order for a long-term trend of declining jail populations to materialize, it will take a complete re-imagining of who should go to jail in the first place.
“Individuals that have mental illness, that have drug addiction issues, that have medical problems, that fail to show up to court for low-level issues rather than bringing them to the jail, there’s better ways to hold them responsible,” Bolton said.
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