Sheriff has help from prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys in keeping the inmate population down

BEDFORD – Lawrence County Sheriff Mike Branham reported to the commissioner that cooperating between judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in the sentencing of inmates has been keeping the number down in the county jail.

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Sheriff Mike Branham

Sheriff Mike Branham reported the jail is at 72 percent capacity this morning with 131 inmates, of those 107 were male, 24 females, four Level 6 felons, and 17 Department of Correction hold.

“We had six DOC inmates ship out this morning,” he added. “We have been holding them because Reception Diagnostic Center had an outbreak of COVID. I also want to thank the judges for helping by finding alternatives to sentencing or sending inmates to DOC to keep the local jail population numbers down.”

Sheriff Branham says Brandon Blackwell will replace Major Travis Sanders who was appointed the county’s new human resource director.

Brandon Blackwell