Advocates for inmates say one solution is to make bail bonds lower. "One of the main reasons the jail is crowded is because bonds are too high," says Shelby County Public Defender Rob Gowan. "If you're poor -- and most inmates are poor -- they can't afford even a $3,000 bond. We aren't given a lot of plea bargaining leverage, even for the smallest offenses."

Many defenders feel that they and their clients are the victims of Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons' zero-tolerance policy. Patterned after successful programs in New York, the hardball approach to crime stipulates that law enforcement saturate areas that are high in crime with special street units. The policy prohibits any plea bargaining for people arrested for murder, armed robbery or aggravated assault.

In theory, a no-deals program sounds good, but it is often applied in cities where the poverty index is more spread out. That is not the case in Memphis, where many crime-ridden, highly policed areas are disproportionately poor. Police make between 180 to 200 arrests a day; charges range from driving with a suspended license to first-degree murder.

In fact, Memphis' crime rate for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and burglary is higher than the national average: According to the most recent Department of Justice national crime statistics, the city's crime rate ranked ninth among U.S. cities with populations of more than 500,000. (Nearby Nashville ranked third.)

Gibbons believes there are three main catalysts for crime in Memphis: Gangs, with an estimated 15,000 members in the city; drug addiction, which afflicts about 70 percent of the jail's population; and the city's insufficient treatment of the mentally ill, which leads to lower-level misdemeanors and felonies such as vandalism and public intoxication.

Defending his high bonds, Gibbons says, "Lowering bonds simply because an offender can't afford to pay should not be the desire of people who want to empty the jail. The way to alleviate the jail's crowding is to expedite the trial process."

Toward that end, Gibbons offered a written plan last week -- a three-year strategic plan to curb crime by hiring more prosecutors, modeled after Boston's successful approach. That city experienced an unheard-of decade-long decline, slimming its annual homicides to 31 in 1999, the lowest number of killings in almost 40 years. (Crime statistics for 2000, however, revealed that serious crimes rose back up 6 percent.)

Attorney A.C. Wharton, who heads the public defender's office, says he'd like to see officers citing, rather than arresting people for minor offenses. Wharton recently told Judge McCalla that he and other criminal justice officers are trying to clear the clogged system (in 1999, Shelby County's 64 public defenders were strapped with 28,671 cases, causing severe court backlogging) by moving toward faster releases or citation in lieu of arrests. With McCalla and other jail experts, Wharton wonders aloud if long-term solutions from the Tennessee Legislature, in the form of funding or new laws, might be the only way to fix the county jail's huge problems. In particular, Wharton hopes for passage of a "speedy trial law" that would set a time limit for indicting an inmate.

But while that solution would reduce jail congestion, and address some of the civil rights issues involved in holding inmates before they are tried, it would not solve the jail's problems with violence. Wharton is currently defending an inmate who alleges the guards beat him, dragged him down a hallway and made him find his way back to his cell in the dark.

After millions of dollars in lawsuits, beaten and raped inmates and an assassinated guard, the jail's burdens don't seem likely to lighten anytime soon. Judge McCalla has ordered that the sheriff's department and county move quickly to hire more guards and begin segregating hostile inmates, or face what attorneys for the inmates call for -- a $50,000 a day fine leveled against the county and the sheriff individually.

Just before the New Year, the Shelby County Commission approved the hiring of an additional 174 jailers, appropriating $6.2 million for one fiscal year. The jail has not hired additional gang intelligence officers, and the plan it submitted in response to Judge McCalla's order does not mention beefing up the jail's Direct Response Team.

But plaintiff's attorney Robert Hutton, who represented Darius Little, the first inmate to draw attention to the jail's problems, says that if the authorities don't move carefully, they could ignite a powder keg.

"The guards are afraid of the gangs. It makes no sense that the sheriff tighten up control of the inmates, to punish them, unless there is adequate staff to protect the guards and other inmates from gang retaliation," says Hutton. "We've struggled with this for four years; we should think before acting. These are volatile, violent people not used to being crossed or disciplined. Moving too quickly could cause another inmate to be hurt. And the possibility of a riot is real."

Editor's Note: Portions of this story appear in the current issue of the Memphis Flyer, as well as in previous issues.

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