BEDFORD — Lawrence County Sheriff Greg Day briefed county commissioners Tuesday morning on the resolution of a multi-week telephone outage at the Sheriff’s Office, while also providing an update on the current inmate population at the county jail.
The Sheriff’s Office has successfully transitioned to a new phone provider, ESI, following more than two weeks of technical disruptions caused by issues with its previous carrier.
“It has been quite a process,” Sheriff Day told commissioners. “They are working out a few bugs, but it seems to be working well.”
The system mishap was prompted by persistent technical errors that the previous provider failed to remedy without requiring an extensive upgrade—a transition the vendor ultimately refused to execute once the county decided to switch providers.
“So for two and a half weeks we had phone issues,” Day explained. “Calls were not going where they needed to go. You never knew who would get the call. But we are good now.”
DOC Holds Account for Quarter of Jail Population
Sheriff Day also presented the latest headcount for the Lawrence County Jail, reporting a total of 72 inmates currently in custody.
The jail population includes:
- Male Inmates: 50
- Female Inmates: 14
- Department of Correction (DOC) Holds: 15
- Parole Holds: 3
Inmates awaiting transfer to the Department of Correction account for nearly 25 percent of the jail’s total population. Sheriff Day noted that county officials are awaiting state transport to relieve capacity, stating, “Hopefully DOC will take those prisoners soon.”
