Road patrol officer Lowell Larson says deputies are "hurting"
MARQUETTE -- Overcrowding, understaffing, and challenging conditions. Those were some of the concerns expressed by the President of the Marquette County Deputies Association at Tuesday's Marquette County Board meeting.
"The deputies have been hurting for a long time; we have an overcrowded jail that is understaffed with employees that get very little support. Our deputies deal with situations and people that the average citizen does not even know exists," says Lowell Larson, Jr., President of the Marquette County Deputies Association.
I went to the jail Wednesday to see what Deputy Larson is talking about. As it turns out, his statements seem pretty accurate.
The jail currently has the minimum number of correctional officers: five per shift. These five correctional officers are responsible for overseeing upwards of 100 inmates. The jail is technically "at capacity" at 80.
"We're overcrowded; we get 90 to100 in here from time to time, that's when we have to open that bottom floor and take overflow downstairs," says Sheriff Michael Lovelace of the Marquette County Sheriff's Department.
Even that overflow area is usually full. But, it's not just the number of inmates that overwhelms the correctional officers.
"You see a lot of things in a jail that not everybody sees...we get a lot of people here that are mentally ill," Sheriff Lovelace says.
The staff shortage is also on the roads. There are only seven road patrol deputies covering 1,800 square miles.
Sheriff Lovelace says he's requested four more correctional officers and three road patrol deputies to help with the shortage of staff. He'll find out if he'll be granted that personnel sometime in October.
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