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| Careful accounting saves state prison system $2 million in 2002 |
| By Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |
| Published: 09/29/2003 |
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The Arkansas prison system shaved about $2 million in payments to county jails during the second half of 2002, a state audit revealed. Prison officials say the savings is quite a turnaround from the previous fiscal year, when an audit showed that the state Department of Correction paid millions more than its records suggested was necessary. Each year, the prison system pays county lockups to hold state inmates awaiting transfer to prison. Despite the billing discrepancies, there were no signs of deception by jailers, prison officials noted. "A lot of it is just errors," said Dina Tyler, a spokesman for the prison department. "But from our point of view, it's people we shouldn't have paid for. So we didn't." New bookkeeping procedures should prevent such overpayments in the future, Tyler said. Pulaski County officials are reviewing whether the prison system's revised numbers are correct. From July through December 2002, the county submitted bills totaling more than $1 million for holding state inmates. The Correction Department paid a little more than $900,000 after its review. "We've been going back and forth with them," said Randy Morgan, Pulaski County jail chief. "We've been trying to reconcile [what they pay us]." For other sheriffs around the state, the differences were relatively minor. Though some expressed disappointment, they have resolved to accept what the Correction Department pays, said Joey Potratz, deputy director of the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association. The lower compensation follows years in which the state had fallen millions of dollars behind in reimbursing sheriffs. The delays exacerbated budget woes for many sheriffs offices, causing staffing and equipment shortages that prompted safety concerns. In November 2002, state auditors reported that $3.5 million of the $10.3 million billed to the prison system by county jails in fiscal 2002 was not supported by prison records. The state eventually paid $11.8 million to counties and city jails in fiscal 2002, which ended June 30, 2002. Beginning with bills submitted after July 2002, the start of fiscal 2003, the prison system began to review records and bills more rigorously. As a result, officials found that only about 70 percent, or $4.7 million, of the $6.7 million in bills submitted from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2002 should be paid. During the review, duplicate bills submitted by two different counties were discovered. Invoices were received that should have gone to the Department of Community Correction instead of the prison system. And bills were submitted for inmates who had not been remanded by a judge to the department's custody, auditors revealed. Counties that were holding inmates for the Department of Community Correction shouldn't expect a payment anytime soon. The department, which supervises parolees and those on probation, doesn't have funding to pay for county jails for any inmate overflow. |
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