Corrections officials report rising jail population, commissary revenue; radios fixed with mayor's help

Ronald Prince and lieutenant Cook updated the Public Safety Committee on jail operations and programs, reporting financial and population figures for March and describing recent program activity.

Ronald Prince presented jail financial figures, saying the sheriff's fee was $5,175.69, a comp fee of $1.90, phone fees totaling $15,003.88, offender fees of $3,300 and commissary revenue of $7,477.95. "We saved the county on inside workers a $106,020," he said, and outside workers generated $60,720 in savings. Prince told the committee, "When I left today, we had 335 people in custody," and noted that numbers were "going back up, unfortunately."

Prince thanked Mayor Graham for helping get radios repaired in the jail, saying the repairs eliminated dead zones and improved officers' ability to call for help. "He, helped us get our radios fixed... so we had no dead zones in our jail now," Prince said.

Lieutenant Cook reported on the MRT program: the recent men's graduation went well, the venue was moved to Victory Baptist, and the department is preparing to graduate its tenth female group in late July or early August. Cook invited law-enforcement committee members to attend and said the program has graduated over 200 inmates, male and female, since 2022.

Committee members noted that other departmental reports (EMA, juvenile, probation) were included in the meeting packet though some representatives were not present. The committee made routine approvals and adjourned without further action on corrections items.

Several numerical figures and program names were reported verbally by staff at the meeting; committee members did not vote on new appropriations or policy changes in this session.