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| County would spend more money by not opening new jail |
| By hometownargus.com |
| Published: 05/24/2011 |
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To open or not to open; that was the question. The Houston County Board received the necessary information to move forward with opening the jail portion of the County Justice Center (CJC) during the May 17 board meeting. County Financial Director Casey Bradley and Jail Administrator Mark Schiltz provided figures to the board that indicated if the county would NOT open the jail portion of the CJC is would cost the county approximately $37,000 MORE than if they move forward with plans to put the jail in operation when the facility is set to open in September. The issue of whether to open the jail or mothball it for now, surfaced in early April when former county commissioner Kevin Kelleher asked the board to take a close look at the numbers before opening it. Kelleher, who had been one of the biggest proponents of the 65,000 square foot facility, admitted he was wrong. With the current prisoner populations and number of new jail cells built over the past five years, he contended there is a jail bed glut. He questioned if it would be more prudent to not open the jail portion of the CJC for now, not hire the six FTE positions needed to help staff the new jail and ship all the prisoners out. According to the figures provided at the May 17 meeting, including debt service and all other expenses, it will cost the county an estimated $1,612,132 to open the CJC including the jail. If the jail portion is not opened at that time, it will cost the county an additional $37,000, or $1,649,060. “All estimates are based on actual figures for expenses incurred over the past five full fiscal years,” Bradley stated in the report to the board. “ “For calculation purposes, all annualized costs were broken down into daily average costs and divided by the average daily population housed out of county for the past five years,’ Bradley continued. “This figure gives the average daily cost of housing a prisoner out of county per day. This was then multiplied by the total average daily population that would be housed out of county over the same period, as if we were not to open the Justice Center.” After reviewing the figures, Commissioner Justin Zmyewski asked if the current jail/dispatch would still be as large. Schiltz said that it would, since the county would still have the dispatch center open. “We need two people on at all times, even without the jail,” Schiltz said. When asked what the current jail population was, Schiltz replied, “20 right now. We have 13 in, but will have to ship one out. We got one in early this morning, but will have to find another jail, since our limit is 12.” Zmyewski then asked if the current population remains around 20 if the county would still have to hire six FTE employees. Read More. |
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