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| Jail space unlocks more revenue |
| By The Post-Crescent |
| Published: 10/06/2003 |
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Having fewer local inmates in the Outagamie County, Wisc., Jail has generated a windfall from state jail bed rentals, which are projected to total more than $3 million by the end of 2004. The reversal of fortunes at the jail rapidly filling with local inmates less than two years ago promises financial rewards for county taxpayers in the 2004 budget proposal of County Executive Toby Paltzer. The county Law Enforcement Committee reviewed all 22 budgets under its oversight Thursday, approving the entire package in less than an hour with only minor revisions. Committee chairman Lloyd Kloehn noted this is the first time as committee chairman he received no pre-review contacts from department heads seeking to bolster funding beyond what the executive proposed. "I think they're all aware that it's tight this year and what the executive has in there is going to be it," he said. Sheriff's department-related functions would consume $13.1 million, 28 percent of the proposed $46.5 million county levy. The department trails only the Health and Human Services division, budgeted at $19.9 million, in terms of its cost to taxpayers next year. Sheriff Brad Gehring's 2004 proposal shows reforms initiated by the members of the County Board's now-defunct Jail Options Committee will generate state rental revenues of about $1.5 million this year, double what his department predicted a year ago. Gehring's staff predicted the jail, rapidly filling with local inmates two years ago, would have room to house an average of 38 state prisoners per day this year, generating annual state rental revenue of $721,240. The jail housed an average of about 78 state prisoners per day so far in 2003. Gehring anticipates the jail will house 100 state prisoners per day next year, generating more than $1.8 million in state rental income in 2004. The county plans to launch an inmate day-reporting initiative, allowing some 30 would-be jail inmates to receive treatment and therapy while serving sentences outside of jail, at the start of the year. The day-reporting plan, budgeted at $153,229, would join a host of Jail Options Committee initiatives that reversed the recent-years trend of double-digit percentage jail population increases. |
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