In an attempt to lower the number of inmates sitting in jail, the Whitfield County Commission will let the local district attorney's office add an employee.
The commission approved $32,000 for a new full-time position at Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston's Whitfield County office last week. The new employee will be tasked with writing paperwork for defendants who will go on probation for felonies, a job now handled by Georgia's Department of Community Supervision.
Poston said the position is needed because the department is too slow, costing the county six figures.
When a defendant is convicted and sentenced to prison, they often will go on probation when they are released. Before they go into state custody, Poston said, the Department of Community Supervision is supposed to fill out and submit paperwork to the Georgia Department of Corrections, detailing the defendant's probation stint.
Before the prison system receives the paperwork, the defendants wait in the county jail. On average, the wait lasted two weeks for each defendant in 2016, Poston said. This year, the wait increased to 17 days.
Bert PostonAll the while, Poston said, the county pays for the inmate to sit behind bars. Studying a couple of time periods over the last couple of years, the district attorney estimated that 250 inmates sit in the jail annually as paperwork is pending. Whitfield County Sheriff's Office Capt. Wesley Lynch said the cost for housing an inmate is $43 a day.
Based on that price, the number of defendants involved and the length of each stay, Poston estimates the waiting process costs the county $150,000-$160,000 each year.
His solution? A full-time employee who will fill out the paperwork in the district attorney's office. The employee would also fill out paperwork for defendants who have violated their probation. The county approved a $41,000 salary for a new, full-time employee. The position will replace a part-time worker, who made $9,000 a year.
In more than 90 percent of cases, Poston said, a defendant pleads guilty rather than go to trial. When that happens, Poston said, the new staffer can type up the probation paperwork and hand it to the clerk of court at the plea hearing.
"[Two to three] weeks shrinks down to 2-3 minutes," Poston wrote of the delay in an email to the Times Free Press.
The clerk then would send a copy of the paperwork to the Department of Corrections, triggering the state agency to pick up the defendant from the jail.
Poston said different judicial circuits handle probation paperwork differently. Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin did not return an email asking how his office deals with the issue.
County Administrator Mark Gibson said the commissioners approved the plan for the first six months of 2018. Poston will then show them whether the new position has actually saved the county money.
The Conasauga Judicial Circuit also covers Murray County. But with a population of 39,000, it is about 40 percent the size of Whitfield County, and Poston said he has heard no complaints about overcrowding there.
"If it works over here, we'll look at it over there, as well," he said. "Eventually, I'd prefer that state probation not do any sentences or revocation orders in either county and that we handle all of it, but that's a staffing issue."
Poston hopes the faster process can lower Whitfield County's jail population by 10-20 inmates a year. He also plans to add more ankle monitors, moving more defendants to house-arrest status.
The new hire comes as the jail population increased 23 percent in four years, from 383 in 2013 to 481 this year. Lynch said the increase is because the county has booked more people for probation violations as the state has diverted more people from prison under Gov. Nathan Deal, who took office in 2011.
In 2013, the county served 763 felony warrants. Last year, the number was up to 1,013 - a 32-percent bump in three years.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.