WITH THE RICHARDSON COUNTY JAIL OVERCROWDED, THE NEED FOR SPACE IS DIRE

From the July 26th, 2022 Edition of the Falls City Journal, Written By Nikki McKim

Following an informative public discussion this past February, the Richardson County Jail Citizen’s Committee members decided to put the discussion of a 40-bed addition to the Richardson County Jail on hold for two years.

Now five months later, the Richardson County Sheriff’s Department is scrambling to find a solution to the increasing jail crowding with no end in sight.

To date, nearly 400 people have been booked in the Richardson County Jail in 2022.

According to Historical Corrections Statistics in the United States, 1850-1984 and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2008, The national jail population grew between 1980 and 2008 from 161,000 to 785,500. In rural areas of the country, the jail population is continuing to boom leading to overcrowding. This stems from policy changes, such as greater reliance on money bail as pretrial populations have surged.

In Richardson County, “business” hasn’t slowed down in the three years that Sheriff Hardesty has taken office.

“The people we arrested in 2019, 2020, and 2021, we’re still arresting in 2022,” he said. “Now there are new ones and all of the sudden, it’s not, ‘hey, you’re going to get probation.’ They keep getting arrested and sent to county jail for a year, which ties up beds.”