Franklin County reviews jail staffing, short-term out-of-county housing and temporary contracted correction officers

County officials updated commissioners on jail operations and staffing pressures and presented cost and operational analyses for several options, including continued selective housing at neighboring county jails, contracting temporary 1099 correction officers, and the theoretical outsourcing of all inmates.

Warden Franzoni said the jail has temporarily housed 28 inmates in neighboring jails, which allowed the facility to close one housing unit and reduce another to a one-officer post; that change lowered the number of daily posts by six. He said neighboring facilities have maintained inmates' access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and legal services. For security reasons, Franzoni declined to identify the specific partner counties in the public meeting.

HR Director Tiffany Boyer reported active recruitment: 54 filled full-time correctional officer (CO) positions as of the meeting and 55 expected by the next day, with six conditional hires pending. Part-time positions remain largely unfilled (2 of 10), and multiple interview dates are scheduled through January. Boyer described outreach efforts including job fairs and said county staff have done preliminary research into private organizations that supply temporary 1099 correction officers; those vendors require four years of verifiable correctional experience, background checks, drug screening, psychological evaluation and proof of workers' compensation coverage, and quoted regional daily rates that range roughly from $60 to $100 per day depending on location and contract terms.

County fiscal director Janelle Freese summarized a modeling exercise that estimated the extreme scenario of housing all inmates in outside facilities at about $13,500,000 versus the jail's gross expense budget of $16,700,000. After removing internal allocated costs and factoring in jail revenue, the county's "true cost" of operating the jail as-is was estimated closer to $14,000,000, making the two models comparable; Freese noted the assumed bed rate was $90 per day and that using a $100-per-day rate (the current federal contract rate) would increase the outside-housing estimate by roughly $1 million, making outsourcing more expensive than current operations.

Officials also emphasized nonfinancial impacts of broad outsourcing: some partner facilities decline certain inmate classifications (segregation, juveniles, females, high-security or medically compromised inmates), partner facilities may reserve the right to deny or return inmates, and outsourcing can reduce inmates' access to local courts, attorneys, probation services, reentry programs and medical/mental-health continuity. Warden Franzoni said the county would still need a booking area and medical clearance at intake and might retain a small housing footprint even if many inmates were contracted out.

Commissioners asked staff to continue exploring regional collaboration options, gather more detail on temporary contracted correction officers, and return with additional cost and operational analysis. The board did not take a formal vote on a change in jail operations.