In Wakulla County, all residents ordered to evacuate but some inmates are left behind

Residents in Wakulla County in Florida’s Big Bend region are under mandatory orders to evacuate by 8 a.m. Thursday, but some inmates are being left behind.

The Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office said it has no plans to evacuate the jail. It has capacity for 350 inmates. A spokesperson said the jail isn’t full but couldn’t say exactly how many inmates were there Wednesday.

There are two state prison facilities in the county, the Wakulla Correctional Institution and its satellite, the Wakulla Correctional Institution Annex. Those prisons weren’t evacuated Wednesday. They can hold more than 2,500 prisons combined.

The Department of Corrections has already announced it had completed the evacuations of about 2,500 other inmates from 25 other prisons across 14 counties. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Wakulla County prisons would be evacuated later, ahead of the hurricane making landfall.

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.