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| Jail Shuffle Of Inmates Continues |
| By Tom Yancey |
| Published: 04/08/2009 |
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Sheriff Steve Burns told the County Commission's budget committee Tuesday that "We're shuffling inmates every day" to maintain a low census at the Greene County Jail, also called the detention center. Last December, after operating at well over capacity for several years, the sheriff had to significantly reduce the inmate population to satisfy the Tennessee Corrections Institute, which then granted certification for another year. Loss of certification had been threatened until then, as the county tried and failed to come up with a solution involving construction. Commissioner Hilton Seay asked Burns for an update during Tuesday's budget meeting. "To make the numbers work, we've cut federal inmates in half," and our numbers of state inmates are low too," the sheriff said. Burns said he is trying to house exactly enough federal inmates to make revenue projections. Burns said he will look at revenue projections in a few weeks, with new county budget director Mary Shelton. The sheriff said he is hopeful that large numbers of state and especially federal inmates that were housed at the jail for the first five months of this fiscal year -- before he had to make the reduction -- will be enough for the department's budget to "break even" at the end of the current year. But he noted that decreases in revenue from this source will be seen in the new fiscal year that begins in July. "We're in contact with the state," Burns said. He said TCI officials realize that it will be difficult for the sheriff to always keep the jail census below its 158-bed certification. He said the inmate population spiked briefly to above 190 already this year, but has been running in the 160s and 170s. Burns said he took 10 inmates to prison last week, who had been in the jail but technically were in state custody. He said the "biggest problem" in the jail, its female population, remains even when total numbers are down. "We want to get the state up here and let them look at what's happened in the last three months," the sheriff said. Burns said "the bottom line is, we try to hold onto the (inmates) who pay the most, as long as we can." The county is paid $48 per day for housing inmates in federal custody awaiting trial or sentencing in U.S. District Court, two blocks away. The county is also paid to house inmates in state custody, but not for prisoners arrested locally on state charges, who have not been tried or sentenced. $700,000: 'THAT'S GONE' Commissioner Bill Dabbs asked the sheriff how much revenue the decreased population has cost the county. Burns said that, before the December reduction, "we were on track to get $700,000 in additional revenue through June -- that's gone." Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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