Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Corrections topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commissioners warned jail housing costs may rise by millions as inmate counts climb
Summary
Commissioners were told the county's contractor-per-diem and rising inmate counts could add roughly $4 million in jail costs next fiscal year; officials cited current counts near 500 daily and higher per-diem rates charged by other counties.
County staff and commissioners spent a portion of the budget meeting focusing on detention costs and an outsourced jail contract. Staff said the contractor's daily per-diem for inmate housing recently rose and the county is already housing roughly 500 inmates daily, a level staff said could push a projected cost increase in the range of $4,000,000.
"Our contractor estimates that we'll probably maybe at the end of this next fiscal year maybe be about 550 inmates," a county speaker said, noting higher per-diem rates in neighboring Johnson County (about $105 per day) and other counties quoted at $92.50. Commissioners cautioned that the $4 million estimate does not include added guard hiring or transportation costs when inmates are housed out of county. The court instructed staff to include those pressures in ongoing budget refinement and to monitor the contract and occupancy assumptions closely.
