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New liaison keeps track of inmates

ESCANABA — After being awarded grant funding, the Delta County Correctional Facility created a new position within the jail to make sure inmates are not overlooked.

“It’s important that we don’t have inmates falling through the cracks,” Delta County Sheriff Ed Oswald said.

According to Oswald, the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission provided the funding for the new position.

The Michigan Indigent Defense Commission was created by legislation in 2013 after an advisory commission recommended improvements to the state’s legal system.

According to its website, the commission works to ensure indigent defense services in Michigan are delivered in a manner that is fair, cost-effective and constitutional.

Indigent defense provides services to defendants who can’t afford legal counsel on their own.

Oswald explained members of the commission came to the facility in August to tour the facility and ask questions about the inmates.

Instead of answering the questions himself, Oswald had the commission speak with the correctional staff.

“I felt they would get the best information … if they talked to the people working the job,” he said.

Sometime after the visit, the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission decided the facility would be getting funding for an “inmate liaison” position.

Delta County Sheriff’s Office waited until the funding came in before getting the authorization from the county to hire.

According to Oswald, Liza Plourde was chosen for the liaison position.

“She gave up her supervisor position to take this position,” Oswald said, adding Plourde was a sergeant within the correctional facility.

Oswald explained Plourde’s position is to make sure the standards set by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission are being met.

Plourde does this by assisting court-appointed attorneys and their clients, explaining the Advise of Rights to inmates prior to arraignment, explaining the criminal process to inmates, answering inmates’ questions, appointing court-appointed attorneys, updating the Jail Management System with new bonds and charges, communicating to both attorneys and courts on new files, helping indigent inmates file requests for attorneys, and keeping records of the number of contacts, visits or correspondences between inmates and their court-appointed attorneys.

Oswald added because the position is funded by the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission, it will be audited annually by the commission.

According to Oswald, before the position was implemented, there were indigent inmates within the legal system in Delta County being overlooked.

He explained with a shortage on attorneys and attorneys having problems accessing their clients within the jail system, there was a need for an inmate liaison position to allow what needs to be done for inmates in Delta County.

The new position has been in place for three weeks.

According to Oswald, although it has only been a short period of time, there has already been an improvement within the jail.

“We’ve seen an increase in communication,” Oswald said.

With the increased communication between inmates and their court-appointed attorneys, Oswald said inmates will know what’s going on with their cases.

He explained this will have an overall affect on the jail population because having inmates understanding the process more and communicating more with court-appointed attorneys, there will be a decrease in inmate anxiety, which would then decrease incidents within the jail.

“It’s really only three weeks old so we’ll know more (as it goes on) to see how beneficial it is,” Oswald said.

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