By Nancy Lowry
The Lawrence County jail is not a drunk tank, according to Lawrence County President Judge Dominick Motto.
Motto last week issued an administrative order that prevents the jail from accepting individuals arrested by local police for public drunkenness.
The order rescinds an Aug. 6, 2001 order by former President Judge Ralph D. Pratt that opened the jail as a temporary detention facility for persons not yet charged, arrested or cited for public drunkenness.
“We don’t want the county jail to be a temporary detention center,” Motto said.
Motto said he was told that police officers at times arrest visibly intoxicated individuals whom they deliver to the jail who are not charged.
“They just take them to jail to sleep it off,” Motto said. “Often, no charges are ever filed. They are just released.”
Motto said this practice will stop.
“They can keep them in the city lock-up or in their own facilities,” he said of the police.
Motto acknowledged that not every department has its own holding cells, but to enter a jail, in individual must be charged with a a misdemeanor or felony crime.
“Do the paperwork and charge them,” he said. “Then we will accept them.”
Everyone admitted to the jail must be processed according to established procedure, he emphasized.
Motto added that the jail is not equipped to hold intoxicated people who could become ill or hurt themselves while in custody.
Everyone in a jail has the right to post bail, he explained, “but these people come in with no charges filed against them. They don’t have that right.”
Motto said his order does not include people arrested for drunk driving. They may be admitted to the jail, but the paperwork must be filed against them.
AN OFFENSE
“Public drunkenness is an offense,” Motto said.
An officer can arrest someone they see is drunk who is walking down the middle of the road, on the sidewalk or a danger to himself or others, he said. However, if the officer wants to take him or her to jail, they first must file charges and take the person before a district judge to have them arraigned and bond set.
“Don’t just drop them off,” he said. “The jail is meant to house people ordered there by some process.”
Motto pointed out that intoxicated persons must be monitored to ensure they do not hurt themselves, become ill, vomit and choke or develop a medical condition, and the jail does not have staff to oversee them.
“I understand that the police are busy. They are short on manpower, face budgetary cutbacks, and they need to go out on other calls,” he said. “But the jail is not responsible to pick up slack.”
CONCERN
Motto’s ruling to drain the drunk tank has at least one local district judge concerned.
“What will the police do with the drunks they arrest?” asked District Justice David Rishel, a former police officer.
Rishel said officers cannot leave an intoxicated person on the highway or at a roadside.
Most local police departments — with the exception of the city of New Castle — have no holding cells.
“You can’t keep them in your patrol car. That would be a liability issue if you get another call. And you can’t even arraign someone who is intoxicated,” Rishel said. “By law the person must be able to understand what is going on.”
He asked what is an officer to do if he cannot get someone to pick up the individual.
“Some people don’t have families,” he said. “Others may be so drunk they can’t tell you who you could call or provide a phone number.”
INCIDENT
Once a person is detained, the police department is responsible for the safety and well-being of the individual, he pointed out.
He recalled an incident of several years ago when a local department picked up an intoxicated man:
“He was arraigned, then the officers took him out to Route 65. He was supposed go to his residence but instead he walked along the highway. He was hit by a car and died. There were liability issues over it.”
Rishel has dealt with the issue as a police officer and as a district judge.
“There is nothing more frustrating to a police officer than to sit with a drunk and wait for him to sober up. If you’re a one-man department, as many are, you’re not able to do anything else.”
If there is no one the police can call to take him, “is it fair to take them to the City Rescue Mission or to the hospital and ask them to keep him?” he asked. “I don’t know what the answer is.”
