Monroe County jail notebook: Week finishes on 4-day stretch under functional capacity
Monroe County’s jail population fell to 220 Saturday, down 11 compared to a week ago. It also marked the fourth straight day under the ACLU’s 229-person functional capacity. Over the last 82 days, the jail averaged 237 inmates, with at least 803 departures and a median stay of two days.
Monroe County’s jail population stood at 220 on Saturday (Oct. 10), which is down 11 from a week ago. The jail finished the last four days of the week under the ACLU’s version of the jail’s functional capacity, which is 229.
The 220 figure is the lowest population total since Aug. 28, when the population was 216.
The highest number in the last week was 241, on Tuesday, which was still lower than the numbers in late July and early August when there was a six-day stretch over 250.
The jail saw one notable addition on Friday night, when the suspect identified in the Sept. 6 Kirkwood Avenue shooting was arrested and booked into jail.
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 (Oct. 10) was about 229.
That’s right at 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 difference between the two jail population snapshots at the start and the end of the period 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, 100 of them were still there on Oct. 10. That means 147, or nearly 60%, of the people who were in jail at the start of the period, had left by the end.
At the same time, 120 people who arrived after July 21 were still incarcerated on Oct 10. The 100 people who were present at both endpoints, together with those 120 later arrivals, account for the current population of 220.
That comparison still does not capture people who arrived after July 21 and then left before Oct. 3. A total of at least 803 people departed the jail during that span, some of those departures could have been by the same person. It’s “at least” because some people booked into jail don’t stay in jail long enough to appear in the daily population report.
Among those who departed during the time The B Square has tracked the numbers, the median length of stay was 2 days.
Over the full 82-day period, the average daily population was about 237. The highest count was 264 on July 31. The lowest was 216 on Aug. 28.
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