Monroe County jail notebook: Population stays below ACLU threshold for 39th straight day

Monroe County’s jail population stood at 213 on Saturday (Nov. 14), which is up 9 from a week ago. But it still continues a 39-day streak when the count of prisoners has been below the ACLU’s version of the jail’s functional capacity, which is 229.

On Wednesday (Nov. 11) the population dipped under 200 with a count of 197.

Saturday’s count of 213 was also the highest number this past week, which was still 16 under the ACLU’s functional cap.

Monroe County’s jail data dashboard includes snapshots of basic counts, demographic profiles, and the types of crimes prisoners are charged with. The dashboard is updated routinely, which means Monroe County residents don’t need to wait for weekly updates from a news outlet.

The B Square has tracked the numbers starting on July 21, when the jail held 247 people. Ten days into that span, the 10-day rolling average was about 254. The most recent rolling 10-day average, on Saturday (Nov. 14) was about 206.

That’s 23 under the number that the ACLU gives as the jail’s functional capacity in its federal lawsuit, which it filed in July on behalf of jail inmates. Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté has given a lower figure for functional capacity. His July overcrowding report started with 294 reported beds, subtracted housing that he said cannot be treated as general-population space, leaving 233 available general-housing beds. Applying the same 80% principle yields a functional capacity of 186.

The most recent public mention of a potential location for a new jail came at the Oct. 30 meeting of the food and beverage tax advisory commission, when commission member Lennie Busch asked whether the North Park site had been ruled out because of its proximity to the planned Quarry in the Uplands tourism attraction. County commissioner Julie Thomas indicated North Park had not been ruled out.

Thomas noted that the 99-acre quarry property stretches between Arlington Road and State Road 46 and is heavily wooded, saying that a jail at North Park would not interfere with the attraction. Busch said her concern was about locating a jail next to a destination expected to draw children. Thomas responded by pointing to the proximity of the current Monroe County jail to Fairview Elementary School.

The difference between the two jail population snapshots at the start and the end of the period that The B Square has tracked does not capture the turnover in the jail during that period. Of the 247 people who were there on July 21, 71 of them were still there on Nov. 14. That means 176, or about 71% of the people who were in jail at the start of the period, had left by the end.

At the same time, 142 people who arrived after July 21 were still incarcerated on Nov. 14. The 71 people who were present at both endpoints, together with those 142 later arrivals, account for the current population of 213.

That comparison still does not capture people who arrived after July 21 and then left before Nov. 14. There were at least 874 departures from the jail during that span. Some of those departures could have been by the same person.

Among those who departed during the time The B Square has tracked the numbers, the median length of stay was 2 days.

Over that same period, the average daily population was about 230. The highest count was 264 on July 31. The lowest was 196 on Oct. 23.

[Monroe County Jail Timeline]