YORK COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) The inmate population at the York County Detention Center has grown by 25 percent since 2016, says York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson.
In 2016, Tolson says the average daily inmate population was 364 inmates. This year, the average population is 462 inmates.
“So essentially, by jail standards, we are full because of classification issues,” said Tolson.
Another agency dealing with an increased workload is the Solicitor’s Office. Solicitor Kevin Brackett says in four years, the amount of warrants they’re filing increased by 40 percent.
Now Tolson and Brackett are working together to solve the crowded jail problem.
“There are two ways you can address this problem,” said Brackett, “You can build additional jails, or you can increase the flow of people through the courts by increasing resources in the courts,”
Brackett presented the idea to create five additional positions at the Solicitor’s Office, which he estimates would cost around $400,000 a year. The positions would be allocated between the Solicitor’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, and a Clerk of Court.
“When you compare the cost of this staff with the cost of an overcrowded jail and the consequences of that,” said Brackett, “And also the cost of building a jail and staffing a jail, it’s much higher than staffing the court system.”
Brackett and Tolson says creating additional positions would solve the crowding problem at the jail for a few years, while they work to set aside funds for a permanent solution.
The idea was presented to County Council during the September 10th Workshop Session. They have not yet made a decision on the matter.
