Flooding forces release of some inmates

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said 177 inmates have been released or transferred to other facilities because of flooding from heavy rain over the weekend.

Sgt. Mike Ward confirmed that inmates, most facing misdemeanor charges, have been released from the jail as of June 13.

“Whether they were transferred to another facility, whether they posted bond, weather they were given time served or released, it's a number of things,” ECSO Sgt. Mike Ward said.  

Tuesday, Ward said it was not likely inmates would be released stating, “Those conditions are tolerable at this point so unless something changes, I don't see us releasing anybody at this point.”

But the state attorney's office, public defender's office and chief judge had other plans.

“They were able to arrange other forms of supervision or work out plea deal to have some of those inmates released,” Ward said.

ECSO said the release of inmates is not unusual, and the recent flooding has sped up the process on some cases.

“It was something that was going to happen anyway.  We just expedited it so we could get the numbers down little bit,” Ward said.

The power and air conditioning have been temporarily restored but three north units of the jail are still shut down.

“They have gotten most of the debris out of the basement where all the damage was,” said Ward.

As of noon on Wednesday, the number of inmates released and/or transferred is as follows:

·         50-served their time, released

·         48-transferred to a state prison

·         31-made bail via bail bonds

·         18-were being held for other agencies and transferred

·         15-released to U. S. Marshals

·         6-cases were null-processed

·         4-put up cash bond

·         1-sentenced to probation

·         1-work release

·         1-purged

·         1-pathway

·         1-keeton

Officials said numbers are likely to change as more inmates could be released or transferred. At this time, they do not know how long judges will be reviewing cases.