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| Kalamazoo County Must Dispense What Inmates Leave Behind |
| By mlive.com |
| Published: 06/29/2009 |
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Trash or treasure? Kalamazoo County must dispense what inmates leave behind by Lynn Turner | Kalamazoo Gazette Monday June 29, 2009, 8:40 AM KALAMAZOO -- An expensive, lined leather bomber jacket, moldy sneakers, shorts, funky-smelling socks and a Ziploc baggie containing a wallet, papers and photos tumble out of a heavy-duty paper bag. They are the belongings of a Kalamazoo County Jail inmate who's moved on to prison. Someone was authorized by the inmate to pick up his stuff, but no one ever did. After 30 days, the jail is authorized to get rid of it, but Lt. Gail Sampsell usually waits three months before going through the 30 to 40 bags of belongings that sit in a dim, locked room in the basement of the jail. "It's kind of like looking through people's lives," Sampsell, a jail administrator for the past eight years, said recently as she checked the contents of a tattered wallet. There is a lot of junk -- court papers, lighters, stale cigarettes and bank cards that are cut up before disposal. There are salvageables -- clothing and cell phones that are donated to charity; a coat that might be given to an inmate arrested in the summer and released in the winter; photo IDs that are sent on to the Michigan Department of Corrections; and cash, which goes to the county treasurer. And there are items that straddle the thin line between trash and treasure -- a child's crayon drawing to "Daddy;" snapshots of starfish on the shore from someone's Caribbean vacation; a memorial program from a teenager's funeral; letters to loved ones never sent. They may have been treasures to the owners, but they will end up in the trash bin before the day is done. "This is what always bugs me, the kids, the family photos," said Sampsell, pulling out a school photograph of a cute little girl, her name and age written on the back. "It's almost like taking memories people held dear to themselves and they're just throwing them away. "My purpose is not to judge, but to look for contraband." In the same property bag, Sampsell finds a letter to the inmate's father, telling him how he looks forward to one day having Sunday dinner with him again, along with a lethal-looking, but legal, folding knife with a 3-inch blade. The letter goes into the trash pile. The knife will be destroyed. "We don't like to return weapons to inmates," she said. Except for a few razors, the weapons were found by police officers while arresting the owners. Everything is documented. Reports will be written. In the eight years she has dealt with the property left behind, Sampsell said she has never found drugs. Sometimes she has to debate with herself whether a clothing item -- such as a dessert-plate sized rhinestone belt buckle that looks like a crown -- includes real or potential gang symbols. The decision determines whether the piece goes into the trash bin or the donation bag.Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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