Apart from special categories such as state prisoners, the number of inmates seems to have stabilized at the Giles County jail since the coronavirus became noticable in this area in March.
“The numbers have been steady,” Sheriff Kyle Helton said recently.
In the past inmate numbers sometimes have climbed high above the capacity, which is just under 130, he said, Local citizens, among them representatives from the Giles County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, recently met with Helton to learn whether more whites or minority residents were held at the Giles County Jail.
Branch members were concerned that there were more minority inmates, but jail records from 2017, 2018 and 2019 show that Black males accounted for 23 percent of those jailed, compared with 75 percent of white males.
Recently of 138 in the jail, there were 33 Black males and three women, along with 77 White men and 25 women, according to jail records.
Helton said he had offered to let citizens ride along on patrol to get a better idea of what deputies see.
Comments