County officials report higher inmate counts after bond-rule change; Jackson County to house out-of-county prisoners

Jackson County Administrator Andrew Long told the Board of Supervisors on July 14 that a July 1 legal change limiting magistrate discretion on bond determinations is raising the number of people that counties must hold in jail.

Long said the change generally requires bond for aggravated felonies and for repeat misdemeanors involving drugs or violence. He told supervisors the county had taken some prisoners from Johnson County, was housing Scott County inmates under an existing memorandum of understanding, and expected many of the newly held inmates to be in custody for one to three months as cases move to district court.

Long gave current counts and recent trends: about 40 inmates in custody (roughly 10 local, eight from Johnson County and 22 from Scott County), an average daily population in June of 35, and 29 bookings in June. He said Scott County generated $33,440 in revenue for June and that fiscal-year revenue was approaching a figure supervisors described as roughly $490,000 to date.

Regarding billing, Long said Jackson County is charging Johnson County $65 per day per prisoner, and the county’s current rate for Scott County has been $55 per day under the prior MOU. He warned supervisors that larger counties are experiencing heavier impacts and that Jackson County should be careful not to house so many out-of-county prisoners that its own residents must be shipped out.

Long also raised two operational issues tied to facility operations: a dispute with the vendor that manages the county’s backup generator over whether the unit was transferred into the county’s name and whether the vendor’s bill was justified, and the need to decide on signage for a sheriff’s building and options for illumination and mounting.

The information was presented as an operational update; no formal board policy change or binding direction was recorded in the transcript.