An Indiana woman arrested for disorderly conduct was “unarrested” after a jail refused to take her in for being too drunk.
Police in Seymour were called for a woman who was not doing well on June 22, according to local reports.
The police report said officers found the woman, who had difficulty sitting up and was slurring her words, with a bottle of whiskey hanging out of her purse.
Paramedics were called to check her out and determined she was only heavily inebriated.
After the woman refused to go to a hospital, cops arrested her for disorderly conduct and drove her to the Jackson County Jail.
Jail staff gave her a breathalyzer test and she blew .255 blood alcohol content. Staff refused to put her in a cell.
“We wouldn’t take them. That is too high. We got to wait for their alcohol level to come down,” the Jackson County Jail commander told Seymour council at a June meeting, according to Fox affiliate WDRB.
“My staff refuses. The police officer takes this person, he has got to sit in the parking lot with her.”
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The jail commander said the officer didn’t wait long to release the woman.
“Well then he calls the jail about five minutes later, change of plans, they are unarrested. I’m going to leave her in the parking lot of the jail,” the jail commander said.
“So, my jail staff knows they have a duty to intervene and so they go out there, call this person a cab, call the family, and they sit with her outside the jail until someone comes and picks her up.”
The jail commander brought up liability issues the city could face with police allowing vulnerable people to be left alone.
“Is the city attorney aware of the liability those officers are putting on the city, because if that person goes out in the highway, which everyone knows the jail is on a highway, and gets hit by a car, who is liable for that because when you take somebody into custody they are under your care,” the jail commander told the town council.
According to WDRB, at least three people have died at the Jackson County jail since 2021.