A judge is taking action on the problem of overcrowding at the Duval County jail.

Judge Linda McCallum is finding out if bond can be reduced for some of the inmates who are waiting for their day in her court so they can wait somewhere else.

"I don't control the count in the jail. The judges do," Sheriff John Rutherford said in an interview earlier this week regarding the jail's overcrowding.

McCallum said it was that comment by the sheriff that led to her decision to be willing to listen to possible solutions.

"I don't know that the sheriff has an exact idea of how that happens at first appearance in court, but regardless, if there is a possibility that that's the issue, then I think the right thing to do would be to address, solve the problem," McCallum said Friday in an phone interview.

There are currently more than 2,800 inmates in the Duval County jail, about 600 more than it's supposed to hold.

Rutherford said he thinks bonds are set too high in too many cases. So McCallum sent a letter to the state attorney and the public defender telling them to show up in her courtroom on Monday to review all of her felony cases.

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There are 10 pages full of cases, some with no bond, others with a few thousand dollars bond, and some with more than $1 million bond.

At least 200 cases will be reviewed.

"If the state does not think the bond should be reduced, it's not going to happen at this hearing," McCallum said. "It's not going to be me making decisions about reducing it."

"Now I'm not suggesting that we just lower bails," Rutherford said earlier this week. "What I'm suggesting is we lower bail if they will get into our pretrial services program where they're under supervision."

The sheriff said there are other issues affecting overcrowding, like too many felons in the jail instead of in state prison, along with trial delays.

McCallum said she's willing to look at what her court can do.

"I don't think that I'm sticking my neck out," she said. "I'm just saying if there is a problem, let's look at it. We may find that's not the issue. We may look at it and it may be that the attorneys, the state says 'No, none of these bonds need to be reduced.'"