SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Corrections Division
| 
LENAWEE COUNTY
SHERIFF'S OFFICE
2008 JAIL DIVISION STATISTICS
SUBMITTED BY CAPTAIN DENNIS STEENROD, JAIL COMMANDER
The Sheriff, by statute, is responsible for operating the County Jail. The Lenawee County Jail operates with a staff of thirty-six (36) Full time employees. The jail staff consists of a Jail Commander, four (4) Sergeants, twenty-five (25) Corrections Officers, four (4) Intake Officers, a Mental Health Counselor, and an Account Clerk. The Jail Staff's primary responsibility is to provide a safe, secure, and humane environment for inmates.
In July of 2008, after much work, the Lenawee County Jail in conjunction with Community Correction began offering GED classes to inmates. In 6 months 30 inmates participated in the program. 2 inmates successfully earned their GED.
Lenawee County Jail has privatized inmate food service and inmate health care. The food service operation has a Food Service Director and three Food Service Supervisors who oversee eight inmate workers who prepare and deliver inmate meals. We currently have a nurse on-site one hundred and twelve (112) hours a week and a physician on-site four (4) hours a week. Inmates do not have to be transported to a Physician's Office by Road Patrol, which would deplete patrol time and hamper crime prevention activities.
Also, the Lenawee County Jail was found to be "Full Compliance" with State Administrative Rules for Jails and Lockups for 2008. This was an exhaustive policy and procedure audit and an extensive physical plant inspection, which determined compliance with rules involving fire safety and inspections, jail evacuation, security threats, use of force, inmate medical care, inmate food service, inmate classification, sanitation practices, inmate rights, and maintenance of equipment and structures. Sheriff Welsh and his staff were awarded a certificate, which he proudly accepted at the Michigan Sheriff's Association summer conference.
The Lenawee County Jail provides several rehabilitative programs for inmate as substance abuse counseling, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, church services, and domestic violence (anger management) counseling.
In 2006, 4246 inmates we booked into the Lenawee County Jail. Of those booked 3324 were males and 928 were females. The average daily population was 230. The jail has a rated design capacity of 287. The highest daily count was in September, 2008 with a total of 262.
In 2008, the Lenawee County Jail was faced with a drastic increase in the female inmate population. In the past the Lenawee County Sheriff had no alternative but to ask the Courts to reduce jail sentences, which gave inmates early releases. It was discovered that Jackson County was faced with the same situation. A decision was made to shut down a male housing unit in our jail and house those male inmates in Jackson County. This allowed us to convert the male housing unit to a female housing unit. Jackson County sent us female inmates in exchange for the male inmates, which we housed with our overflow. This project has been successful in eliminating early releases and saving the taxpayers money in boarding inmates out in another jurisdiction.