Thread: GA:Immigration crackdown not crowding area jails

WHY ARE THEY BEING ALLOWED TO BOND OUT?

Laws not crowding area jails
Immigration crackdown
By Joe Johnson | joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:34 PM on Sunday, July 20, 2008

Five percent of prisoners at the Clarke County Jail one day last week were held for federal immigration officials, but new laws to crack down on illegal immigrants aren't exacerbating jail overcrowding as opponents of the laws predicted.

"The impact hasn't been noticeable," Clarke County sheriff's Capt. Eric Pozen said of the new laws.

A law that took effect last July requires jailers to make "a reasonable effort" to determine if a prisoner is in the country illegally and hold him for federal immigration officials.

And as of this July, another law mandates that jailers check the immigration status of everyone who is booked in on a felony or DUI charge.

But federal immigration officials take custody of illegal immigrants within three days of their arrest, or the immigrant prisoners are let go if they can bond out, according to Pozen.

Last Wednesday, there were 36 foreign nationals detained at the Clarke County Jail, 21 of whom were held for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to pick up, according to Pozen.

The jail's policy is to call the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Law Enforcement Support Center, which checks its database of known immigrants who are in the country illegally or have been flagged for deportation.

The call has to be made within 48 hours of the prisoner's arrest, the policy states, and if the prisoner's name is in the database, jailers must notify ICE agents, who decide whether to ask local jailers to hold the prisoner.

The jail gives ICE agents three work days to pick up immigrants for deportation proceedings, but if they don't, the prisoners can bond out of jail, Pozen said.

"It is the initial local charge that the inmate has incurred, which keeps them in our facility, which causes an impact," he said.

Over the past year, ICE agents have come to Athens on a "regular basis" to pick up illegal immigrants at the jail, though Pozen didn't know how many prisoners have been handed over to agents.

ICE Southern Region officials did not return telephone calls last week.

The 330-bed Clarke County Jail is chronically overcrowded and held 409 prisoners last week, but Pozen said the overcrowding is caused by arrests, not just immigrants.

Forty-four of the state's 146 county jails were over capacity in May, according to a June 5 report by the state Department of Community Affairs.

One reason jails aren't overcrowded with prisoners awaiting deportation may be that Homeland Security's LESC isn't always quick to respond when jailers ask the agency to check whether a prisoner is on the watch list, according to Terry Norris, executive vice president of the Georgia Sheriffs Association.

"They can make bond the same day they are arrested, because the check never gets back," Norris said.

Hall County has overcome the response time problem by partnering with ICE under a federal program that trains jailers and gives them direct access to the LESC database, according to Sheriff Steve Cronic.

"Before the program, we booked in about 200 immigrants a month, 63 percent of which were illegal," Cronic said. "Since implementing the program, those numbers have been halved. That's a tremendous reduction, which tells me that the individuals we have here illegally are being careful not to break other laws."

Clarke sheriff's officials looked into the program, but decided not to participate.

"It would require our employees to conduct the entire status investigation for ICE," Pozen said. "We determined the best use of our personnel was to run a query ... then notify ICE as described in our policy and procedures. In this way, ICE is responsible for conducting their own investigation in which they make their own determination."

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 072108


http://onlineathens.com/stories/072108/ ... 0370.shtml

In house arrest - are these illegals put on in house arrest?