Cache County sheriff cites inmate housing, school contracts in $8.4 million revenue projection

Cache County Sheriff Jensen told the Cache County Council at a budget workshop that the sheriffs office expects revenues to rise from about $7.9 million this year to roughly $8.4 million next year, with most of the increase tied to inmate housing contracts, a larger school contract and higher federal daily rates. "I think last year's revenues were about $7.9 million, and this year or going into next year it'd be about $8.4," Jensen said.

The sheriff said the countys contract with the local school district will be a major driver, growing to about $640,000 from previous figures. Jensen also said the office had removed a planned $158,000 addendum tied to a school "guardian" program after determining state law requires the position be a county employee rather than a school district employee. "We canceled the addendum to that contract...we gotta do some different things with the law that lets that be our employee rather than the school district's employee," he said. The removed amount was taken out of both current revenues and the next year's budget.

Jensen described jail contracting as the largest single revenue source. He said the county receives differing daily rates from the state depending on services provided: a base state rate of $84.52 per inmate per day; about $90 for basic cognitive programming; and about $102 for therapeutic or offender-treatment programming. Jensen said the county budgeted conservatively on inmate counts and did not overstate the daily-rate revenue. "The bulk of the inmates we get are the $84.52 a day, the base rate...I did underguess a little bit on what the revenue from the state would be," he said.

The sheriff said contracts with federal authorities also improved after renegotiation. He said the U.S. Marshals Service daily rate was renegotiated up to the same $84.52 figure and that the county typically expects to hold about 45 to 50 federal inmates under that contract; Jensen estimated federal contract revenue at about $1.96 million if the federal bed count averages in that range. He added that all federal agencies (Marshals, DEA, FBI, ICE) fall under the same federal contracting rate.

On immigration holds and ICE, Jensen said current practice follows state law: if someone is booked on a state charge and cannot prove citizenship, the county must contact immigration authorities. He said a separate ICE contract does not exist and that an optional eight-hour training would allow access to ICEs database but would not allow the county to place holds. "Even at the end of the day, they...we can't put a hold on anybody," Jensen said, adding that recent federal recruitment incentives had raised concerns among sheriffs statewide.

Jensen also flagged other revenue improvements: district court bailiff payments increased substantially this year after advocacy to change the payment formula; the county now expects roughly $409,000 for court bailiffing, up from about $339,000 last year. He said city public-safety contracts will be phased up over a multi-year plan and estimated roughly $80,000 to $90,000 in increased revenue annually from those city contracts as they are adjusted to the hours provided. Revenues tied to commissary, inmate phone and tablet usage have also risen with increased usage.

The sheriff and council members emphasized conservatism in budgeting: Jensen said he intentionally underprojected state inmate revenue so the county would not rely on inflated expectations. The sheriff and county auditor agreed countywide revenue projections remain a work in progress and that jail contracting, state rates and actual inmate counts will continue to be the largest uncertain drivers for the sheriff's office portion of next year's budget.

The council did not take formal action on the sheriff's figures at the workshop; Jensen said adjustments already made (the removed school addendum) were reflected in the numbers staff will present in the next budget update.