Overcrowding at Bay County Jail continues to worsen; officials are 'brainstorming' solutions

PANAMA CITY — Just a few months after Hurricane Michael blasted through Bay County, Justin Drinkard waived his right to a speedy trial.

Now, almost four years after his arrest, the Southport man remains behind bars inside the overcrowded Bay County Jail.

Accused of what authorities said was a middle-of-the-night, meth-fueled baseball bat beating death of a 20-year-old Lynn Haven man following an attempted sexual assault of the victim's teenage girlfriend, Drinkard still hasn't had his day in court.

"I figured I'd be here a long time. I didn't know it'd be that long," Drinkard told a News Herald reporter last week from behind a white jail-issued COVID mask as he sat dressed in black-and-gray jailhouse stripes inside a Bay County Jail visitation booth.

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Andre Bivins of Tallahassee was in jail more than 900 days before he went to trial for the shooting death of a Panama City Beach drug dealer.

Chipley resident Jorge Perez, the man who had been accused of orchestrating the robbery that ended in that homicide, spent 903 days behind bars before he was freed at his trial by a jury.

Although prisoners booked into the county lockup are legally entitled to be tried by a jury of their peers within 175 days, the average time they spend behind bars awaiting that trial is 144 days, according to Ruth Corley, public information officer for the Bay County Sheriff's Office.

Cost of overcrowding

As of Aug. 9, Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford, whose agency oversees the jail, was responsible for 1,365 prisoners in a facility with a stated capacity of 1,134 prisoners.

One hundred of those 1,365 were sent to Walton County for the jail there to house, but that leaves another 130 prisoners for whom jail employees must find bed space.

"We still have room inside the facility. It just becomes more challenging," Ford said. "It just makes it much more difficult to isolate the population."

It also makes problems that break out more difficult to control.

"From April to June (of this year), we had 18 inmate batteries on staff and 15 inmate-on-inmate fights," the sheriff said.

It's also expensive. The sheriff's office paid $1.6 million to house prisoners elsewhere.

The sheriff used COVID money to buy GPS ankle monitors for a conditional release program he supervises. That program takes about 35 to 40 prisoners out of the jail.

And, he said, "We're currently working with the court, the state attorney's office and public defenders" to address the overcrowding.

Rising jail population since 2017

"Historically, our intakes are down," Ford said, adding that he and his deputies began noticing the jail population rising in 2017.

In 2017-2018, the jail averaged 1,109 prisoners per month and by 2020-2021, the average monthly intake of new prisoners was 897, he said.

The Florida County Detention Facilities Average Inmate Population reports show that Bay County's inmate population has steadily increased every year since 2017, except 2020 when the average total daily population in June was 1,018.

The average daily population in June of this year was 1,341, a 31.72% rise over June 2020 and a 9.82% rise over June of last year.

Court officials and attorneys blame much of the overcrowding problem on October 2018's Hurricane Michael and on the pandemic, which saw the courts shut down and hearings take place via Zoom.

Addressing jail overcrowding locally

"We work on this daily," Chief Judge Christopher Patterson of the 14th Judicial Circuit Court told The News Herald.

The judges here are "fulltime committed to reviewing jail populations and either finding ways to release those people on a form of supervision or using the GPS program we've partnered with the Bay County Sheriff's Office to do."

Patterson said they have created four initiatives to help control the jail population. Those include a pre-trial release program, a uniform bond schedule for specific misdemeanors, alternative sanctions for those on state felony probation and a diversion program aimed at "getting them on the right track instead of taking up jail space," he said.

He also included the drug court, veterans court and therapeutic justice court for mental health needs that aren't addressed by the criminal justice system.

"I've talked with the sheriff and we're looking at other counties and other circuits around the state for other ideas on how we can divert people from the jail to ease these issues," the judge said.

How do other courts set deadlines?

Patterson said he and the sheriff, State Attorney Larry Basford and Public Defender Mark Sims frequently meet and look at ways other counties are addressing similar issues.

"There's not any one entity or circumstance that caused this over time and no single agency or person could fix it overnight. But approaching it as a community with these monthly meetings is how we're finding solutions," said State Attorney Larry Basford.

The state Department of Corrections even limited the number of convicted felons who could be admitted into the state prison system, further increasing the number of convicted prisons awaiting transportation into the prison system.

The judge is looking at how Lee County addresses prisoners awaiting trial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are presented with time standards that won't consistently leave requests for continuances and extensions.

"If they implement these time standards, it puts everybody on notice that you need to get these cases ready for trial," Basford said.

But those charged with having committed serious crimes aren't getting off easy.

"We are tasked with protecting the community and making the criminal justice system work for everyone. But we also are going to try to keep some of these very dangerous people in jail until they're resolved," Basford said.

Sims said the judge has reached out to other circuit courts and continues to look for ways to fast-track cases.

"We're kind of looking at that and brainstorming some new ideas," Sims said. "We've got a meeting next week and we'll talk about things we can do to make things a little big smoother. ... There are a lot of things that we can do. A bond schedule may be something we could take a look at creating to cut the amount of time between the time they're arrested and the time they get bond."

The sheriff also is hoping the new wing he expects to be built within the 18 months to house non-violent drug offenders can take up to 120 prisoners out of the existing facility.

"Hopefully that gives them the tools they need to beat their addiction. It certainly is a big issue that results in crime and incarceration," Ford said.

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County Jail overcrowding worsens; officials look for solutions