DeKalb County Detention Center at full capacity
Posted: Jun 29, 2010 4:41 PM CDT
Updated: Jun 29, 2010 4:46 PM CDT

DEKALB COUNTY, AL (WAFF) - Sheriff Jimmy Harris announced that for the first time in its history, the DeKalb County Detention Center is at full capacity. Harris says for the past month and a half, the center has been at, or near, full capacity due to large numbers of county, state, municipal, and federal inmates.

At one point, the sheriff says as many as 335 inmates were present, including an array of prisoners from municipalities throughout DeKalb County, including long term inmates. The current average daily federal inmate population is 75, including prisoners from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the United States Marshals.

Sheriff Harris says over the last month we have had to turn away inmates from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Marshals, and county municipalities, simply because they did not have the capacity to hold them all.

"We hate to have to turn away anybody, but we just haven't had any space at all. We don't expect that this will continue for the long term. We hope soon we can resume accepting inmates for all municipalities just like we've done in the past," said Sheriff Harris.

"We hope to see our population count decrease in the near future, but as of right now it's holding steady. We have really got a lot of folks down here," said Jail Administrator Tony Durham.

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12729905