Cape County Court working to reduce jail population despite suspending jury trials through February

The Cape Girardeau County Court enacted an administrative order Monday extending its suspension of jury trials through Feb. 26 because of increased COVID-19 activity in the area. The extension leaves the Cape Girardeau County Detention Center over capacity for the time being.

According to Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson, the jail has 237 inmates in custody, but has a maximum capacity of 220. Dickerson said she could foresee this becoming a larger issue because of trials being suspended longer.

“This is an issue all across the state,” Dickerson said. “It is a day-by-day, and sometimes hour-by-hour, issue that is being addressed constantly. We are working diligently with the courts, attorneys and all others to address what we can do to keep our numbers in check.”

The jail has averaged more than the maximum capacity of 220 since the doors opened, Dickerson said, but the pandemic is certainly not helping the matter.

“Unfortunately, we then must take whatever steps we can to accommodate the numbers and work constantly with the courts,” Dickerson said. “Overcrowding is an issue with all jails. It has been for years, and COVID has not relieved that issue or slowed crime. We do house with other facilities when we can, but during this time, facilities are not opening their doors to others any more than necessary. We are all maintaining our own population.”

Dickerson said the jail is taking inmates temperatures, asking a set of COVID-related questions and requiring inmates to take a decontamination shower upon arriving to the facility. They are asked the set of questions again upon arriving in booking, then placed in a 14-day holding quarantine in order to reduce the potential of an outbreak in the jail.

“Daily monitoring happens throughout the jail,” Dickerson said. “My staff has been performing a major juggling process since the beginning of this pandemic and adjusting many protocols.”

As of now, the jail has not had an outbreak of COVID-19, and has even turned some inmates away until they’re medically cleared by the arresting agency. Some inmates have also been held at intake until the courts could be contacted to assist with a possible issue.

“I have a great staff,” Dickerson said, “and I cannot commend them enough for all they do daily to keep up the demands that have been placed on everyone.”

Courts

Circuit Court Judge Ben Lewis said the court has recently tried some cases, which will help with overpopulation in the jail.

“Here’s the way that we are trying to deal with it,” Lewis said. “Last week, I had a docket of criminal cases that wasn’t regularly scheduled. But it was cases that the public defenders had that either the defendant had been given an offer of probation, which is quite often the case under any circumstances.

“We had some cases where they were going to plead guilty on the recommendation that they go to prison, and that got them out of the county jail. Or they had already pled guilty and they hadn’t been sentenced yet, because we haven’t been doing in-person hearings, and those people were either put on probation or sent to the department of corrections. ... We did those hearings by video link to the county jail so we didn’t have to bring them in the courtroom.”

Judge Lewis also said the jail’s population is lower this week than it was last week.

“Judge (William) Syler did a docket today (Monday), and he resolved a number of cases,” Lewis said. “The census tomorrow or the day after should be lower again. We’re working it. It’s not good, but we’re working the problem.”

On March 16, the Missouri Supreme Court suspended all in-person hearings statewide. On May 4, it opened courts back up to in-person hearings through four operational phases.

According to the Missouri Supreme Court website, in Phase Zero, most in-person proceedings are suspended, and access to the courthouse is greatly limited. In Phase One, critical proceedings are allowed to resume, but courtrooms and other public spaces must be limited to no more than 10 people if possible. In Phase Two, additional proceedings may resume, and courtrooms and other public spaces are limited to no more than 25 people. Finally, in Phase Three, courts may resume proceedings in compliance with local social-distancing and occupancy-limit protocols, and courtrooms and other public spaces are open in accord with social-distancing protocols.

During any of these phases, proceedings may be conducted remotely, common spaces are regularly sanitized, visitors are screened to mitigate against spread of the virus, masks or face coverings are required in all public court areas except when an individual is alone in a private office and social-distancing protocols are followed.

Cape Girardeau County upgraded to Phase One on Nov. 24.

“The deal last week was kind of an emergency situation where we had hearings,” Lewis said. “The attorneys were in the courtroom, the defendants weren’t.”

On Oct. 7, the court issued an administrative order suspending jury trials in the 32nd Judicial Circuit through Dec. 31, prior to Monday’s extension. The suspension could also be extended again.

“I have been doing this in two-month increments because the lawyers have to know whether or not to get their cases ready to go to trial,” Lewis said. “If you had a case in front of me and it’s on the books, scheduled for jury trial in January, you need to know now whether you need to subpoena your witnesses and spend all the hours getting ready for that trial. You don’t want me to wait until Jan. 1 to tell you that we’re not going to do that.”

On Saturday, area health officials reported Cape Girardeau County was at “extreme risk” of COVID-19 infection.

“COVID’s getting worse instead of better. We’ve been dealing with this all year,” Lewis said. “Jury trials have been suspended all year. But it’s even worse now than it was in May.

“My experience in the community is that people are becoming more and more reluctant to gather together, and they would be even more reluctant to come together for a jury trial than they would be three or four months ago. Objectively, it also could subject them to a higher risk of infection if we do that.”