Houston County Jail nears capacity; staffing shortages raise safety concerns

Houston County Sheriff Matt Moulton says the high number is partly due to the jail holding inmates from other agencies. 

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The Houston County Jail is nearing its maximum capacity of 665 inmates, with 627 currently housed there.

Houston County Sheriff Matt Moulton says the high number is partly due to the jail holding inmates from other agencies.

“Over the past few months, Peach County has been going through renovations of their facility, so we’re holding some of their inmates in our facility,” Moulton said. “We’re holding inmates for the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, and several other agencies.”

Sheriff Moulton believes bed space issues in the probation detention centers are an issue as well.

“So we have probationers that are sentenced to—whether it’s probation or parole revocation—we keep them in our facility until bed space becomes available at a PDC,” he said. “And while they’re serving in our facility, that time counts. So, what we’ll see is 90 to 180 days of their stay, the state will just leave them in our facility to serve that time. Then they’re released from our facility.”

Jail administrator Brian Blanton says the number is higher than what they like to see. He says short staffing combined with space shortages is a problem.

“We are currently supposed to have between 150 and 160 employees at the detention center, and we have about 120 right now,” Blanton said. “The majority of the ones that are vacant are certified deputies. We’re just 30 to 35 certified deputies short. Because of the shortage of the staff versus the higher number of inmates, there is a potential of some safety issues there,” he said.

Moulton shares what Houston County is doing to fix this problem.

“Major Blanton does a good job working with the DA’s office, court system and probation to identify those non-violent offenders that can be released back to society without any threat to society,” he said.