By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

Livingston County’s Sheriff has released his annual report to county officials.

Sheriff Mike Murphy presented his office’s report for 2019 to the Livingston County Public Safety and Infrastructure Development Committee during their online meeting, Monday. Murphy started with a rundown of the budget and what stuck out. New computers, phones, and radios helped account for an increase in expenditures, that were largely offset by revenue increases from the state through diverted felons and inmate re-imbursement.

As for federal inmates being housed in the Livingston County Jail, after a 3-4 month lull, Murphy says they have been “knocking it out of the park” and for it, have added between 1.5 and $2-million to their budget.
In 2019, the Sheriff’s Office received $6,600 for marine patrol from the state. Murphy hopes this helps explains to people frustrated about water patrols, why they aren’t as many as they’d like. Murphy said the $6,600 gets eaten up in about one weekend, and when boats go out beyond that, the funding for it comes out of their general fund. He said he’s tried to get an accounting from the state of where that money comes from, knowing it flows through the DNR, but “quite frankly, we don’t get anyewhere.”

Murphy gave a shout out to their community outreach group, which was founded with the intent of getting back to “good old fashioned community policing.” He addressed the growing popularity for criminal justice reform and bond reform. Murphy said that there is no question that there are places where there needs to be improvement, however people tend to paint with a broad brush, and he thinks they do things well in Livingston County. The Sheriff gave some of that credit to the courts, along with credits for helping decrease the jail’s daily population over the past 3 years. Murphy said the judges have been doing a great job at using alternative sentencing options that weren’t there a decade or so ago. As a result, jail space, while having a lower occupancy, is populated by criminals with more serious offenses, and thus the average stay for inmates is on the rise.

Murphy said drug overdoses have been trending down, but doesn’t expect that to be the case this year. Another negative trend on the rise are the number of inmates on suicide watch. In 2019 there were 291 compared to 161 and 105 in the prior two years. Murphy said they are just seeing more and more people with mental health issues coming in.

On a positive note, the sheriff said the jail educator has been worth her weight in gold in helping give inmates a chance of success when they leave jail. The office also added a new k9 and guardian RFID trackers. Murphy closed with some goals for this year being an extension to the jail fencing, getting a germ killing ultraviolet lamp, and potentially purchasing iPads for inmate use.