Oct 26, 2006 By Jennifer Harr 2 min read

Consistent reductions in the population at the Fayette County Prison have resulted in a month where no inmates have needed to be housed in other counties. Warden Larry Medlock said during Wednesday’s prison board meeting that cell rentals for the year have run the county about $51,000 so far this year. Controller and prison board member Mark Roberts said there was $300,000 budged for it.

Medlock said the prison was 200 males and 23 females. He said the population of women dropped from earlier this week.

Comparing the first 10 months of 2005 and 2006, Medlock said there has been a 16 percent drop in the population. Between this October and last, there was a 20 percent population decline, he said.

The average population for the year has been 237, Medlock said.

Board member Sheriff Gary D. Brownfield said that video conferencing and promptly moving inmates into state institutions have cut down on the prison population.

“We’ve been moving people every day,” Brownfield said, noting that vehicles used by his department all have more than 150,000 miles on them because of frequent inmate transportation.

Brownfield estimated that 800 prisoners have been transported this year, and said that he wants to work with other offices to coordinate their transport so that inmates who need to be in the county for criminal court week are there.

The formation of a criminal justice advisory board by President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi has also helped streamline the court process, said board member District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon. She, and other board members, offered Capuzzi kudos for taking the lead and forming the board, which brings together members of various court-related offices an the commissioners to try and keep the court process as streamlined as possible.