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Sheriff’s office outlines jail capacity, contracts and new dispatch capability
Summary
Adams County sheriff’s staff updated the committee on jail capacity, inmate contracts, departmental staffing and a text-to-911 upgrade funded by a grant; officials said Department of Corrections sanctions currently bring higher per-inmate revenue than prior inter-county contracts.
Adams County sheriff’s staff reported to the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee on jail capacity, inmate contracts, staffing and a recent dispatch upgrade funded by grant money.
The sheriff’s office said the facility has 108 beds but typically operates at about 75%–80% of that capacity because of classification and separation requirements. “There’s the facility is a hundred and 8 beds, so we couldn’t ever be at a hundred and 8 people. Typically, carrying capacities is 75, 80 percent of that due to how we would arrange them,” a sheriff’s office official (Brett) explained during the meeting.
Committee members asked whether the county still takes inmates from other counties under contract. Brett said the county currently does not house outside “safekeepers” under earlier agreements but instead houses Department of Corrections (DOC) sanctions; DOC sanctions pay about $60 per inmate, compared with approximately $35 the county previously received from some inter-county contracts, the sheriff’s office said. Officials described DOC-sanction inmates as generally better behaved because they are serving split or short-term sanctions rather than long-term confinement.
The sheriff’s office also reported technological and staffing changes: a text-to-911 capability implemented in dispatch is now operational after a grant-funded upgrade; finance staff have taken responsibility for selling retired squad cars; and the sheriff’s office expects a new hire to start Monday to fill a position vacated when a deputy was promoted.
Committee members thanked outgoing personnel and discussed logistics for housing males and females separately and for using Huber/similar electronic-monitoring programs. The sheriff’s office said a limited Huber program continues in a modified form, with many lower-risk defendants placed on electronic monitoring rather than returning to jail.
No formal committee action was taken; the report was accepted for committee information.
