Judge James W. Lawler presides over a Lewis County Superior Court hearing in August.
Lewis County justice system officials are feeling the strain of bloating caseload and jail population figures, as the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office and Jail have seen in recent years steadily increasing numbers of case filings and book-ins.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer reported his office has seen an approximately 40 percent increase in felony cases when comparing the beginning of September 2015 with September 2018. In the years between, the increase has been 37 percent since 2016 and 18 percent since 2017.
“I was surprised at how big the number was,” said Meyer. “When you’re in the process, you don’t realize how much more it is.”
Meyer said no single classification of crime seems to be driving numbers up, referring to the current caseload as a “hodgepodge.” The dramatic increase, he said, has a lot to do with recidivism rates, or repeat offenders.
While unable to cite statistics for surrounding counties, Meyer said Lewis County isn’t alone: Its neighbors have also watched more cases filter through their courthouses. In response, he said, some counties have changed methods for dealing with drug cases or misdemeanor violations like driving with a suspended license.
But similar changes aren’t likely to be seen locally.
“The legislature defines what a violation of the law is, and I don’t think that it would be appropriate for me to ignore the plain language of the statutes,” said Meyer, who said he’s tried to run a “lean ship.”
“But at some point in time, there’s only so far you can stretch it,” he added.
In response, the prosecutor’s office has seen a “responsive” increase in staffing. Currently, the office is seeking an additional deputy prosecutor — and when it’s filled will bring the number of felony deputies to 10 — and a staffer to handle involuntary treatment act cases (ITA), or people involuntarily committed for drug or mental health issues.
As of Sept. 6, there were 687 felony filings so far this year in Lewis County. Juvenile cases have seen a 19.7 percent increase since 2016 and 5.33 percent since 2017. In the first half of 2018, 981 misdemeanors were filed in the county’s district course — a trajectory poised to possibly surpass the 1,743 filed in 2017.
“I can’t in good conscience say ‘Do more,’ because then we’re gonna end up missing something and that’s certainly something that we don’t want, and when the staff comes to me and say, ‘Hey, this is getting too much,’ and then you look at the numbers and see the jump: That’s something that needs (to be) addressed,” said Meyer.
Meyer said the Lewis County Board of Commissioners has been good about allowing funding for new positions. And as the increase in cases has seemed to lose some gusto each subsequent year, Meyer said he hopes that means their number of felony cases are leveling out. Then again, there’s no real way to make that prediction, and that uncertainty makes budgeting season complicated.
“You can figure you’re going to have a couple homicides a year — you always hope that you don’t have it — but it makes it tough for budgeting for us, and it makes it especially difficult for the commissioners, because criminal justice is such a large percentage of the county budget,” he said.
The most serious charges, like homicide, have a tendency to eat of a lot of resources, he said. If a murder charge goes to trial, two prosecutors will be put on the case. Serious cases also create more paperwork to keep the office’s paralegals busy. And victim/witness coordinators have their hands full working with victims and their families.
Meanwhile, the rest of the office is left to fill in.
Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Chris Sweet said the jail’s population has seen a steady rise, too.
“The average daily population we’ve seen in the last three years has continually increased, and it’s not going down. It’s just going up,” said Sweet.
Currently, the jail sits at an average of 220 inmates. That provides just a 30-person cushion before jail staff implement restrictions on their booking policies. Sweet said if the total system population hits 250, they’ll only process certain violators for a stretch of time until the population drops. That means they’ll take in suspects with felony, driving under the influence, domestic violence and other serious charges, while leaving out certain misdemeanors and minor violations. Charges against those people will be filed and they’ll be issued a summons to appear in court.
It’s something the jail has done intermittently, he said.
While the jail has around 356 beds total, available resources, staffing and space allow a maximum of approximately 250.
So what happens if the inmate population continues to rise?
“We’re literally at the point right now where if we increase any more, we’re going to need more funding assistance because we are asking for another (registered nurse) to work the floor. … We need a couple more deputies that are working the floor,” said Sweet.
“So we are at that level right now that we’re already starting to ask for more resources if we’re gonna continue that route that we’re going, or if we’re just gonna cap it right now and hold place right here and work backwards.”
Sweet added that the jail also serves as a defacto treatment center for its inmates, meaning a growing inmate population involves more than providing additional beds and food. The jail contracts with outside agencies to provide medical and mental health care to its inmates, and is working with Lewis County Public Health and Social Services to secure additional funding on that front, said Sweet.
Like the prosecutor’s office, the jail isn’t alone in its increasing population. Other jails are seeing the same thing, said Sweet, adding that the Lewis County Jail houses inmates from other facilities through contracts with other agencies outside Lewis County. It’s a practice that takes some of the pressure off other jails, he said.
As of Thursday morning, there were 47 inmates booked through those agencies. The number was in the 30s other days that week.
While the outside contracts do serve as a source of some revenue — agencies paying a daily rate to house an inmate in the Lewis County Jail — Sweet said jail officials can have these inmates removed from the jail and back to the facility they came from. It’s a population mitigation tool, if necessary, he said.
