GRANT COUNTY — While the public turns its attention to state prisons, where over 1,000 inmates are being released to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the often overcrowded Grant County Jail has also become a lot less crowded, though for different reasons.

Only 74 inmates were housed in the Grant County Jail as of Monday morning, a bit more than a third of what the jail has been known at times to reach, according to Kyle Foreman, public information officer for the sheriff’s office.

But unlike state prisons, which have reduced their populations as a result of a court order to reduce overcrowding and prevent the spread of COVID-19, inmates leaving the county jail have been doing so normally, Foreman said.

“Most of the ones that got out were because their cases were resolved or they were (let out on personal recognizance) as normal,” Foreman wrote via text.

Instead, the jail’s population has been falling precipitously due to fewer people being arrested and transferred there in the first place.

Due to the pandemic, the jail has continually been on maximal restrictions that are typically reserved for when it’s filled to the brim with prisoners, meaning only those committing violent felonies or domestic violence crimes can be jailed.

The overcrowded jail, built almost 35 years ago to house 85 inmates and since remodeled to hold up to 198 in the same space, implements those restrictions more often than not, Sheriff Tom Jones said last year while campaigning for a new, larger county jail. To maintain distance between inmates and free up additional space for any inmates who catch the virus — none has thus far — those restrictions have been implemented full-time.

In addition, extraditions for inmates arrested outside of the county but found to have outstanding Grant County warrants have dropped dramatically, Foreman said. Though he could not immediately point to a specific policy causing those transfers to be halted, Foreman said he suspected it related back to the pandemic.