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| State eliminating payments to county jails |
| By Elizabeth Graham |
| Published: 04/16/2009 |
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St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties last year each received about $20,000 in state reimbursements for housing felons awaiting transfer to prisons. This year they will get nothing. "It's a significant amount of money," Jefferson County Jail Administrator Lt. Donald F. Pierce said. The state Department of Correctional Services has 10 days to place an inmate in prison once he is sentenced, and had reimbursed counties for housing costs each day that they were kept longer than that. The previous rate of $40 per inmate was reduced in August to $37.50 and then eliminated in the state budget this year. "We could have 100 or 500 state-ready inmates in a year," St. Lawrence County Administrator Karen M. St. Hilaire said. "They could be here one day or 20 or 30 days. There's no way to predict how much it will cost." St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin M. Wells said past annual reimbursement has been in the $20,000 range. He said prisons have been able to take state-ready inmates more quickly in recent years, so few stay in county jail longer than 10 days. He said inmate housing costs $125 a day. "Now they're taking away the little bit of funding they gave us for it," he said. Lt. Pierce said Jefferson County was paid $13,040 to house state-ready inmates from April 1, 2007, until March 31, 2008, and was reimbursed $19,350 the year before. He said the cost to house an inmate in his jail is $109 a day. On top of having to shoulder the entire cost for state-ready inmates, another state decision could drive jail costs even higher. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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