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Michigan jails/prisons react to latest Executive Order

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI (MPRN)--   Michigan sheriffs say they’ve already been taking steps to mitigate coronavirus in local jails.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer released an executive order over the weekend outlining the steps that jails and the state Department of Corrections should be taking.

The order suspends transfers from local jails to the state prisons. It also encourages local jails to consider early release for prisoners that do not pose a public risk and are old, medically frail, or incarcerated for mental health problems.

Isabella county sheriff Michael Main says for the past two or three weeks his office has already implemented much of the order, including limiting arrests.

“Not that you can’t be cited or physically arrested if the need comes up. But we are trying to encourage more citations for appearance dates which is a legal arrest, it’s just not physically brought into the jail.”

Main says as many as five of the roughly 130 people currently held in his jail may be eligible for early release under the Governor’s Executive Order.

So far, he says none of the people currently housed in the Isabella county jail have come down with the virus.