At least four Autauga County Metro Jail prisoners are now behind bars at the Elmore County Jail. But the situation only highlights the need for more jail space in Elmore County.
According to Elmore County Jail records, at least four male prisoners arrived at the Wetumpka facility Thursday afternoon after Autauga County sheriff Mark Harrell started to evacuate the downtown Prattville facility Thursday.
“I have a moral obligation for the safety, health and security of all individuals who come through the doors of the Autauga County Metro Jail, whether it’s my staff, law enforcement officers or inmates,” Harrell said in a post on social media. “...It will be up to the [Autauga] County Commission to properly and adequately fix the issues to prevent health and safety issues before I, as the Sheriff of Autauga County, will place another individual in the jail.”
Shortly after the statement media outlets reported inmates in handcuffs being loaded onto buses in Prattville.
Elmore County sheriff Bill Franklin confirmed his jail was housing some prisoners from Autauga County.
“We got in touch with them and said we would like to help them, but we are limited in what we can do,” Franklin said. “We did take a few of the males from them. We weren’t able to take any of the females. We are well over capacity for females.”
The Elmore County Jail has a capacity of 242 and first took prisoners after its construction was completed in July 1995. As of Friday afternoon, 307 individuals were incarcerated at the Elmore County Jail.
“We are well over capacity,” Franklin said Friday. “We are 65 over capacity at this moment.”
Lucky for Franklin the Elmore County Commission has been actively looking to the future. Legislation last year created two new circuit court judgeships in the 19th Judicial Circuit serving Elmore County. Between that and the Elmore County Jail already being over capacity almost all the time, the commission purchased 11 acres adjacent to the judicial complex and Elmore County DHR across from Julia Tutwiler Prison on U.S. Highway 231.
Franklin said conversations have been ongoing about building a new jail facility for Elmore County to accommodate growth of the county.
“We talked about building a new facility every few weeks, even down to the placement of that facility and how many it will house,” Franklin said.
The new jail facility would be built in phases almost adjacent to the current facility. Doing so would allow movement of prisoners between the jail and courtrooms to remain similar.
The expected capacity is expected to be about 600 beds for prisoners. It is all planning for the future and the concerns of an overcrowded jail already three decades old.
“The commission is very receptive to our thoughts and ideas trying to look down the road towards the future,” Franklin said. “They are trying to get out in front of it now. I commend them for that. We have to position ourselves for the future and I think we're doing that.”
