Jefferson County Commissioner Joe Knight

County Commissioner Joe Knight is quick to distance himself from comments by the commission’s president about possibly releasing inmates from the overcrowded jail.

“President [David] Carrington was speaking only for himself, and certainly doesn’t speak for me or any other commissioners,” Knight said after Thursday’s commission meeting. “I am not for releasing prisoners carte blanche. We are not going to start turning them out. We’ve got problems, and we’ve got a lawsuit out there, but we have to deal with this through the legal process, and I’m not going to be party to turning people out of the jail because of overcrowding. I say, ‘Stack ’em up.’

“That’s probably not a good thing to say, and we have to be mindful of humane treatment of prisoners. But my advice for those people who have a tendency to get in trouble is to not come to our jail, because it’s going to be uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.”

Knight said he hadn’t had any significant reaction from residents of his district, which includes north Jefferson County, about Carrington’s remarks. “My constituents know where I stand on this issue,” he said.

Carrington made headlines earlier in the week when he was quoted by The Birmingham News as saying the county jail might have to release as many as 500 inmates because of overcrowding and because of the county’s current fiscal crisis.

The jail currently has about 125 more inmates than its stated capacity. A new jail adjacent to the Bessemer Cutoff courthouse stands empty; it was closed shortly after its opening by Sheriff Mike Hale when he had to cut about $10 million from his budget.

Hale responded to Carrington’s remarks in a press release issued Tuesday, in which he rebuffed Carrington’s comments. Hale said he “wants to set the record straight that he in no way ever has nor would he ever support the release of inmates into our communities and will fight that every step of the way. Releasing inmates that should be kept locked up is simply not a solution,” the release stated.

“Mr. Carrington seems to think his comments were taken out of context, and somebody ran with it,” Knight said. “We don’t need another consent decree. We have to get on the right track so we can open the Bessemer jail and house them in a humane manner.”

Most of Thursday’s commission meeting was spent in executive session while the four members present discussed a legal issue. The commission rescinded five development contracts with the city of Hoover, the Innovation Station at the old downtown Sears building, and with three commercial developers.