Bradley County Sheriff's Office denies authorizing 911 notification concerning overcrowded jail

The Bradley County Jail, located at the Bradley County Judicial Complex.
The Bradley County Jail, located at the Bradley County Judicial Complex.
photo Staff Photo by John Rawlston Bradley County Sheriff Eric Watson

The Bradley County Sheriff's Office denies it authorized a 911 notification saying its jail was so overcrowded on Thursday that it could not take any more prisoners.

Several officials said the jail has a chronic problem with overcrowding, but Thursday proved exceptionally challenging. The facility, certified to accommodate 408 inmates, held 558 prisoners that day, said 10th Judicial District Attorney General Steve Crump that evening, citing a message from Chief Deputy Brian Smith.

A Bradley County 911 record, logged at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, cites Capt. Gabe Thomas, who oversees the corrections division of the sheriff's office. The record states, "Per Captain Thomas at the jail, they are overcrowded and will not be taking anyone in on warrants tonight."

"I'm unaware of a message that was disseminated through the 911 Center regarding our jail," Sheriff Eric Watson said in an email Friday.

While events unfolded at the jail, Watson spent Thursday flying to Grand Junction, Colo., escorting a Cleveland grandmother seeking to be reunited with her 2-year-old granddaughter, Skyla Miller. The girl had been the subject of a 10-day endangered missing child case.

"If a message through the 911 Communications Center was disseminated, it was not authorized by Sheriff Watson, Chief Smith, or any member of the Command Staff, including Capt. Thomas," department spokesman Lt. James Bradford said in an email.

Bradley County 911 did not respond to requests for comment regarding the message attributed to Thomas by presstime Friday.

"There's a lot of overreaction by some folks in the community," Crump said about the situation Friday. "This is not 'the sky is falling.'"

On Thursday evening, Cleveland Police Chief Mark Gibson verified he had received a text message concerning the jail situation.

"There are 75 inmates in booking with nowhere to house them," said the text message. "Patrol officers will have to sit in [their] cars until we have room. Which may be until court tomorrow. We've exhausted all measures and will present a list of releases to the judge in the morning."

"That's not an option for us," Gibson said Friday. He confirmed that Cleveland police officers did not hold prisoners in their cars as a means of coping with jail overcrowding. "They are meeting us halfway to resolve it and we are taking it on a case-by-case basis."

Cleveland police issued citations for lesser, non-violent offenses in some cases, ordering charged offenders to appear in court at a later date instead of booking them, Gibson said.

Gibson said the jail has encountered overcrowding on other occasions, but that Thursday's overcrowding situation played out differently.

"I've never had them tell us that they're not going to accept prisoners," Gibson said Thursday night. "It's kind of unusual."

Crump cited Watson's determination to resolve a backlog of outstanding arrest warrants as a possible contributing factor to the jail population.

As far as sentencing convicted criminals to jail, Crump said he will not base prosecution based on inmate numbers and that Watson and other sheriffs within the 10th Judicial District understand this.

"I have no desire to seek justice based on the number of beds available a the jail," he said.

Bradford said the sheriff's office "has always disclosed the number of inmates within our facility and recognizes that our Correctional Facility is overcrowded," but that it does not "see an immediate resolution in solving an issue that exists in Correctional Facilities throughout the country."

The Bradley County Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests concerning 2015 and 2016 arrest numbers and average daily inmate population figures by press time Friday.

The Cleveland Police Department did not respond to a request concerning its arrest figures the same period by press time Friday.

Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow on Twitter @pleach_tfp.

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