Official link to Inmate Guide in PDF from Sheriff's site

Dear NOEMIS: Are you official? This is the message that the mysterious Noemis sent me:

This guide is available from the following link: http://www.ingham.org/SH/pdf/inmateguide.pdf

I checked that PDF version of the Guide out, and it looks legit.  I'm glad the Sheriff's Office no longer considers the Inmate Guide a classsified document.  It looks like Ingham County Jail Tales has had a positive impact!

For the record, here is a screen shot of the Sheriff's home page, which serves as the starting point for information about ICJ.  This is what the page looked like in 2007:

Click for a full-size image.  Now, here's the Sheriff's home page as of this week:

Ingham County Jail apparently publishes it own inmate guide

The Ingham County Jail publishes an "Inmate Guide" which they are supposed to give to every new inmate.

They didn't give me one.  When I found out the Guide exists, I asked for one, and got one.

When my attorney visited, he asked for a copy of the Guide.  The guard refused to give him one, saying the Guide is only for inmates.

When I got out of jail, I couldn't find the Guide online, so I scanned it in, and put it online for inmates, their families, their friends, and the public to see: http://inghamjail.blogspot.com/2009/02/official-ingham-county-jail-inmate.html

Today I received a comment from someone under the screen name of  Noemis, with a link to a PDF version of the Guide.

I will gladly link to this version of the Guide if Noemis will identify himself or herself to me, so I can check to be sure this PDF is the real deal.  For instance, the real Guide has signatures of the Sheriff and the Chief Judge.  This copy is unsigned.

Noemis, if you're for real, tell me who you are, who you work for, and convince me that this is the actual, official guide.  And can you assure me that this URL will work forever?

ICJ's latest inmate: drunk driver who killed mother and son

A very sad story and a new inmate in the Ingham County Jail: Daniel Burwell of Lansing, accused of being intoxicated when he drove his vehicle through a red light and struck a car with a mother and her son returning a video tape.

It's even sadder to read the comments posted in the Lansing State Journal's online edition, such as:

Dan is not a good man, I know him on a personal level, he has always been a scared little coward with everything he has ever done.

and

theguyoverthere wrote:
and when was the begining lets see, you maybe spent 4hrs with him total before he stole your girl, so now you have a grudge, i dont not in anyway condone what he did, i do not agree with it, its was wrong, but to say he was on drugs and things of that nature well you got him all wrong. Sure he went through an experimental stage but that has long been over. alchohol was always his vice and its a shame that it was like that. i know exactly what your talking about but you dont seem to remember i was there also. dont talk to me about things you dont know. look how angry you get, its because you cant manage your hate, deal with it, he is gone, deal with it, you talk so much crap after the fact but where were you prior, no where in site, he will get what he deserves it will not make the family feel any better, be productive and support the cause, drunk driving is serious, join the cause to fight the crime, stop complaining and act for once
4/22/2009 11:15:25

I wonder how he's being treated in jail. Do they have him in isolation, or suicide watch? If he's with other inmates, I wonder how they are treating him.

Here's the link to the full Lansing State Journal article.

Sheriff Wriggelsworth embraces tethers instead of jail

Awesome news: Ingham County chooses to punish some people without putting them in jail.

Running a jail is mother's milk for a sheriff. The Ingham County Jail has been overcrowded for years. One obvious reason is that there are people in jail who pose no threat to society.

But many of the people that the State of Michigan feels it must punish do not need to be locked up. The Lansing State Journal recently reported that the ICJ has launched a new program using house arrest and electronic tethers. That article didn't quote the Sheriff. Now, WILX TV, NBC Channel 10 in Lansing, quotes Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth, in support of the new program.
See: Special Report: Jail Without Bars.

Here are the money quotes:

"We've suffered under horrible numbers. Sometimes over 100 people more than we should have," says Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth.

....

"If you'd asked me 40 years ago if i thought it was a good idea to let people who were supposed to be in jail go out on a tether, I'd have told you you were nuts."

Very good news: ICJ adopts home arrest

Yesterday's Lansing State Journal carried some very good news on the front page: the Ingham County Jail will use electronic tethers to place non-violent inmates under house arrest.

This is great news, surprisingly enlightened for ICJ. It means that folks in jail for failure to pay child support or similar non-violent crimes can, as deputy Greg Harless says:

It enables us to free up more beds for the people who truly need to be in jail.

The program allows folks locked in-house to go to work and to make other essential trips at times of day permitted.

Unfortunately, the official Ingham County Sheriff's Web site offers zero, zilch, no information about this important new program. Apparently the Sheriff thinks it's his job to give an interview to the LSJ, and not to publish vital information to folks who need to know.

Sadly, the LSJ has recently reorganized their Web site, destroying access to news articles within the last year. Since I don't trust the LSJ to keep their own content online for any length of time, here's Kevin Grascha's entire article in text:

March 11, 2009
Ingham Co. jail inmates may opt for house arrest

Prisoners pay $8 or more daily for electronic tethers

Kevin Grasha kgrasha@lsj.com
MASON

- For as little as $8 a day, some Ingham County Jail inmates now can sleep in their own beds. A new program, which began Jan. 19, allows qualified nonviolent inmates to choose house arrest, their whereabouts monitored 24 hours a day by an electronic tether they wear, rather than be held at the jail.

And there is no direct cost to the county. The program is funded through fees paid by offenders who use it. It is intended to help ease overcrowding at the Mason facility - a longtime problem that typically leads to hundreds of inmates being released each month before they complete their sentences.

"It enables us to free up more beds for the people who truly need to be in jail," said Ingham County sheriff's Chief Deputy Greg Harless. Qualified inmates who have served 50 percent of their sentences may opt for electronic monitoring at home. Also eligible are qualified inmates waiting for their cases to go to court. A judge now can set a bond or give the person the option to pay for electronic monitoring.

The program is available for people charged with or convicted of most nonviolent crimes. An inmate has to be able to pay for the program, which typically costs between $8 and $16 a day, depending on the person's monthly income. There also is a $45 enrollment fee. Harless said the eventual goal is to have more than 100 inmates using it.

Those charged with or convicted of criminal sexual conduct, assault and other violent crimes are not eligible to be released on electronic monitoring. The jail lists more than 125 offenses - from arson to home invasion to unlawful possession of a firearm - that are not eligible for the program.

Inmates set free

Last year, the jail set free 2,011 inmates before they completed their sentences, in order to not exceed the maximum allowed by the state. The jail's capacity is 665,
although the county rents 193 beds to the Michigan Department of Corrections, leaving 472 beds for the Ingham County courts.

The jail houses people sentenced for misdemeanors, as well as nonviolent felonies. Also, anyone awaiting trial or sentencing for any crime, who is not free on bond, is held at the jail.

As of Friday, 22 people were enrolled in the program. Six successfully completed it. Three did not and were re-jailed.
Ingham County Chief Circuit Judge William Collette said having jail beds available allows judges to fully punish people convicted even of misdemeanors, such as spousal
abuse and drunken driving.

"When you lose that ability, I think society goes downhill," he said.

Calif.-based service

A California-based company, Sentinel Offender Services, runs the electronic monitoring program. A center in Irvine, Calif. keeps track of the electronic monitoring devices at all times. A case manager for the company is based at the jail.

The monitoring device, a tether, is strapped to an ankle. If the person goes too far from home, the monitoring center is notified, then authorities are notified.

People, however, can be eligible to go away from home - to work, church or the grocery store - during pre-arranged times of day. Violators are sent back to jail and
lose credit for the time they spent on electronic monitoring.

Another option for electronic monitoring is to have a global positioning system that can track an offender's every move. With the GPS system, the offender must carry a cell
phone, which communicates with the ankle bracelet.
The phone and the bracelet have to be within so many feet of each other, said Amanda Bergquist, case manager for Sentinel Offender Services.

Although the monitoring is restrictive, "they get to sleep in their own beds and eat their own food," Bergquist said.

Additional Facts

Tether fees

• Fees begin at $8 a day, but can
increase depending on the inmate's monthly income. The typical range is $8 to
$16 a day. There also is a $45 enrollment fee.

A look inside the Ingham County Jail

I found a YouTube video that gives a brief glimpse inside the ICJ. This video may be useful for folks wanting to visualize what it's like inside the Mason Marriott; however, it's not entirely accurate -- the narrator describes cells in regular dorms while showing footage of a holding cell. The regular cells have metal bunk beds, not the concrete you endure in the holding cells, and the regular dorms have conventional flush toilets and sinks, not the unpleasant metal combo toilet-sinks found in the holding cells.

He also underestimates the average inmate count by 100.

Still, the footage gives you a bit of an idea.