Allowing inmates to keep their jobs while they serve jail sentences is getting a serious look in Florida's Santa Rosa County.
County Commissioners in October could entertain a Sheriff's Office proposal to construct a building near the jail in East Milton. The building would house nonviolent offenders who can continue to earn a living while serving time.
It's an idea that seems to be gaining popularity.
The Escambia County Commission this month approved spending $3 million to construct a 300- bed, work-release facility to open in 2005. Escambia's jail is overcrowded, so the county has moved some of its federal inmates to Santa Rosa's jail and has considered using temporary housing to solve the problem.
More than 100 inmates participate in Escambia's work-release program.
Santa Rosa's Public Safety Coordinating Council, formed in 2002 at Sheriff Wendell Hall's request, this month recommended that Hall present a work-release proposal to the commission. Hall's staff is putting together an outline of estimated building costs and how much money the program could bring in.
Hall said work-release is a potential money-maker.
"It's a good deal," said Commissioner W.A. "Buck" Lee, who is on the council. "But before we do it, I want to look at the numbers and make sure it pays for itself."
Lee envisions using a prefabricated building at an estimated cost of $70 a square foot for housing work-release inmates.
It could reduce jail crowding and keep people at their jobs, but it could earn extra money for the county.
"It can turn a profit," said sheriff's Maj. Dottie Way, Santa Rosa County jail director. "I know that Escambia County's does."
Work-release inmates pay their way through the program. Once the building is paid for, the remaining revenue over the cost of operation is profit. A private security company could provide guards to check in and release inmates, saving the county on employee costs. Vending machines and coin-operated clothes washers and dryers can help bring money in as well.
Work-release also could free up jail beds for federal inmates.
Santa Rosa's jail capacity is 506 individuals. It has room for 100 more inmates. Of the jail's 400- plus population, more than one- third are federal inmates. The county earns about $42 a day for each inmate.
Way said even though the Sheriff's Office uses overtime to keep all the jail pods open, the county brings in about $34,000 a week for 142 federal inmates at the jail.
It will be up to a judge to assign offenders to work-release. Right now 16 inmates are serving weekend sentences at the jail, checking in at the end of their workweek and checking out when the workweek begins.
"With that, the offender doesn't pay anything," Way said. It also takes longer to serve a jail sentence that way, ties up corrections deputies with checking them in and out, and raises the potential for contraband to be brought into the jail.
If the Santa Rosa commission approves the plan in October, a facility could be opened in 18 months. The county could start with 50 beds but will need to be able to expand.
"Because, unfortunately, in our business, we're only going to get bigger," Way said.