Georgetown is further restricting when sleeping on The Circle is allowed, banning it from sunset to sunrise.
Sleeping on The Circle was already banned by the city from the hours of 11pm to 7am, but city officials expand those hours to be from sunset to sunrise.
Mayor Bill West says many sleeping on The Circle are prisoners released after 5 or 6pm. He says they’re walking into Georgetown and finding nowhere else to sleep.
West says that created times where individuals were allowed in The Circle while it was dark, making it hard to enforce other Circle rules.
“We saw people sleeping in there all night long, we saw them in there sleeping and plugging their phones in to our outlets so they could charge their phones, we’ve even heard stories of people taking a bath or drinking the water from the fountain ” he said.
He adds they have reportedly been plugging their phones into city outlets to charge them, as well as drinking and bathing using the water from the fountain.
West says the city has attempted to work with the Department of Correction on this issue.
“I contacted the commissioner at one time, and told him, I said: ‘let’s put a shed out there with a phone.’ So, when the prisoners get released, they can at least be away from the facility and make calls for somebody to come pick them up. Or, have a phone that be answered here in Georgetown to where we can get a couple gentlemen together to pick them up and take them where they want to go.” he told DPM.
West says those efforts, however, have not resulted in anything tangible.
Meanwhile, the city is trying to relocate those sleeping there indoors. West says places like The Georgetown Crisis House will often accept recently released prisoners depending on their criminal record.
