Thread: CO-Mesa County Jail Suspends Immigration Holds

Mesa County Jail Suspends Immigration Holds
County Jail Full Of Regular Inmates

POSTED: 9:12 am MDT April 9, 2009


GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- The Mesa County jail has temporarily stopped housing inmates on federal immigration holds because of overcrowding.

Sheriff Stan Hilkey said the jail has between 355 and 360 inmates. It has 366 built-in beds but has added bunk beds and houses some inmates in the gym.

The county's contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement allows the jail to stop taking immigration detainees when it reaches capacity.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Heather Benjamin said the jail is not releasing any county prisoners early or turning any new county inmates away.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/19 ... etail.html

Jail Crowding Forcing Ice To Find New Holding Facility for Illegals


Only Illegals Charged With Crimes to be Held at Jail
Posted: 5:08 PM Apr 9, 2009
Last Updated: 6:54 PM Apr 9, 2009
Reporter: Aaron Luna
Email Address: aaron.luna@nbc11news.com






The Mesa County Jail is running out of space. "In the last few months our population has crept over our bed capacity," says Heather Benjamin with the Mesa County Sheriff's Office.

Officials are now adding bunk beds and housing some inmates in the gym and they've stopped holding suspected illegals for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Benjamin says, "as a courtesy we had the space we were happy to use it happy to work with them, we need that space back now and they have been notified." The jail will now only hold illegals that have committed a crime, no longer accepting those just waiting for deportation. ICE officials say using the jail is a convenience they will now have to live without.

"We would look for other jail facilities in order to hold any aliens that we would encounter or that would be encountered on the highway," says ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok.

The Mesa County Jail will now lose out on the money ICE pays it for temporarily housing illegals. Something it says they won't even miss.
"The money portion we get for these ICE holds are very insignificant in the whole scheme of things," says Benjamin.

And despite the jail retracting the invitation for ICE to use their facility, relations remain strong. Rusnok,says, "the common goal for all law enforcement is to combat crime."

Officials with the Sheriff's Office say if space in the jail frees up they'll help ICE again in the future.


http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/42772447.html