Steadily declining inmate numbers, judges issuing lower bonds and more suspects being cited instead of arrested.
While the legal system grapples with how to sustain its normal operations amid concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the immediate fallout reads like a defense attorney’s wish list.
Chris McNeill, who heads McCracken County’s Department of Public Advocacy office, said public advocates statewide have spent the last few weeks feverishly filing motions for bond amendments or reductions, in order to keep presumed-innocent suspects from jails that have been stuffed past capacity and could be a tinderbox for viral spread if the illness entered a facility.
“It’s a forced test run,” McNeill said.
“What I see is that the judges in McCracken County are working to follow Chief Justice Minton’s order, regarding the review of bonds.”
In mid-March, the Supreme Court of Kentucky issued an order seriously restricting court hearings, and labeling in-custody bond hearings as “time-sensitive matters.”
Jailers and attorneys have expressed concern about how quickly the COVID-19 virus could spread if introduced in a jail.
McCracken County Jailer David Knight said as of Wednesday, the jail’s population was down to 447 — barely above its stated capacity of 440.
“I haven’t seen those (low) numbers in probably five years,” Knight said.
(Written by Dave Thompson. Cross-posted via the Kentucky Press News Service. Read the rest of the article at the Paducah Sun.)
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