This latest round of winter weather caused some what of a problem for Sheriff Randy Henderson. He posted on the departments Facebook page Tuesday morning that the county jail is full and that anyone arrested would have to “sleep on the floor of the jail with a blanket.” That went viral on Facebook on their page as well as ours.

We chatted with him about that and he explained what was going on. He says because of the weather, they have not been able to move inmates to other jails in Butler, Ford and Chase Counties. He says they did make a trip to Chase County on Sunday and picked up 5-inmates being housed there which were scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

He admits that they have been given notice that they can’t place inmates on the floor, but adds “on an emergency basis, you have to, there is just no other way around it.”

He talked about five men arrested in a recent beating and stabbing case and says you have to keep them separated. He says they do have some room in the jail annex because they don’t qualify based on the types of crimes they are being housed on. The annex is considered a a minimum security facility. He says they are maxed out right now, but expects on Wednesday, they will be able to transport some prisoners to facilities in those other counties.

Of course the sheriff and county officials plan to ask voters to approve building a new jail. Sheriff Henderson says they are currently housing 158-prisoners in the jail, and would have 250-beds in the new jail.

He says if they had the new facility would be the task of getting them to the courthouse for and hearings or trials and with the roads in Hutchinson in good shape that wouldn’t be a problem. He says if the roads got so bad, it wouldn’t be safe to transport them, it wouldn’t matter because most likely the courts would be closed anyway, with the judges not present.

The vote on building a new jail comes in April.