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Benton County approves extra jailer as sheriff outlines plan to fund position with federal inmate revenue
Summary
The Benton County Board of Supervisors voted to add an extra full‑time jailer after the sheriff described staffing gaps and a plan to use increased federal inmate revenue to help cover the cost.
The Benton County Board of Supervisors voted to add an extra full‑time jailer after hearing a staffing and finance update from the county sheriff.
During the presentation, the sheriff said the department is replacing a recent vacancy and requests one additional permanent position so a remaining officer can be trained before a National Guard deployment removes another staffer for most of next year. The sheriff said, “we're in the process of hiring a jailer right now, to replace some of the someone that we lost a couple months ago. In addition, we'd like to hire, 2 2 jailers. So plus 1 to our staffing levels. Reason for that is 1 of our jailers is in the National Guard and she's going to be, gone the majority of next year.”
The sheriff outlined revenue measures to support the position. He told the board the jail has increased federal inmates from about 10 to 20 and is renegotiating its federal housing contract from $50 per day toward $75 per day. He said the county is reviewing reimbursement for mental‑health medications that were previously not claimed and described a projection of roughly $603,000 in current revenue with an internal goal to double that within a year. “By housing 10 federal inmates, I think we roughly bring in $22,000 a month. So we moved from 10 inmates to 20 to double those numbers,” the sheriff said.
Board members asked staff to provide written budget figures showing the revenues and offsetting expenditures so the hiring can be included in the November budget amendment if needed. The sheriff confirmed the new jail positions would be full time; he also said part‑time jail positions have been removed from the staffing model because of reliability concerns.
A motion to approve the additional jail position was moved, seconded and carried by the board.
The board did not adopt a finalized budget amendment at the meeting; supervisors directed staff to include the staffing and revenue numbers in the public‑hearing packet for the Nov. 25 budget amendment hearing so the board can take formal spending action if required.
