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Howard County staff outline $271,318 DOC grant cut and bracelet cost savings
Summary
County staff told the JRAC that the Department of Corrections cut the county’s grant by $271,318 and described vendor negotiations that reduced an electronic bracelet daily cost from $4.10 to $2.70, a change staff estimate will save about $100,000 annually if approved.
Howard County staff reported a $271,318 cut to the county’s DOC grant and described steps already taken to reduce program costs. "The DOC grant fund was cut $271,318," a staff member said, and staff are negotiating with their bracelet vendor to lower the per-day cost for electronic monitoring.
Staff described the vendor negotiations as successfully reducing the per-person bracelet cost from $4.10 per day to $3.25 and then to $2.70 per day, and said the vendor agreed to hold that price for two years if the county remains within contract terms. "We were at $4.10 a day. They dropped it to $3.25, and then I just got them to go down to $2.70," Staff member (Speaker 4) said, and staff estimated the change would save roughly $100,000 a year. The county plans to take the negotiated price to the commissioners for approval.
Committee members discussed short-term mitigation measures for the larger state funding reductions, including delaying hires and seeking other internal savings to preserve services. The chair said the county will continue to monitor both state funding decisions and vendor pricing as they finalize the budget going into the next fiscal period.
