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| Officials request money for jail |
| By Winston-Salem Journal |
| Published: 05/23/2005 |
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Housing federal inmates has been considered a moneymaker for county governments, but the Forsyth County, N.C. Jail may be losing money on its federal prisoners, county officials say. The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office has asked the U.S. Marshals Service to raise the amount of money that the government pays Forsyth County to house federal inmates after a study found that the county pays $67.33 a day for one inmate. The federal reimbursement rate is $62.22 for each inmate. The county's contract with the government allows up to 80 federal inmates in the jail, which has a capacity for 1,016 inmates. The jail averaged 850 inmates between July 2003 and June 2004. The sheriff's office hired a consultant to study the costs of housing inmates, which was attached to a letter sent in January to the marshals service. The marshals oversee the imprisonment of federal prisoners as they await trial. In the letter, Karen Taylor, the business manager for the sheriff's office, asked for an increase in reimbursement to $67.33. Sheriff Bill Schatzman lobbied in 2003 to increase the number of federal inmates that the jail could take from 50 to 80, arguing that the county would make a profit from the federal payments. He also is lobbying for more detention officers, saying that they are stretched thin. A county study showed that the jail needs more officers. Schatzman said he could not believe that the county actually could be losing money on federal inmates. Costs for staff, lighting and heating, he said, would remain the same, but the federal prisoners bring money. "The majority of the costs to house that prisoner comes in fixed costs, whether (federal inmates are) there or not," Schatzman said. "We didn't increase staff to accommodate the additional 30 prisoners." The federal government also covers medical costs for its inmates, he said. However, Schatzman said he was not aware that his office had sent the packet to the marshals service. He said he was not familiar with the letter and the study. The federal government is paying Forsyth County $1,135,150 this year to house the federal inmates, said Joe Bartel, the county's budget director. But the study shows it is not covering the county's costs of housing them, he said. The money that the federal government pays for housing inmates goes into the county's general fund. The consultant who did the study worked with finance staff at the sheriff's office and the county budget office, said Ed Jones, a deputy county manager. Housing federal inmates may not be worth it in the future because it takes up jail space, he said. A study showed that under current conditions, the jail would exceed its capacity in 2008, and the county may need to consider building an additional jail. The marshals service made an agreement with Forsyth County when the jail was built in 1995 and provided $2 million toward its construction, said Richard Carleton, a supervisory deputy marshal with the marshals service in Greensboro. The original contract allowed 50 jail spaces to the marshals for federal inmates. Most of the inmates are awaiting trial in U.S. District Court, and they are in the marshals' custody, he said. Now there are close to 80 federal prisoners in the Forsyth County Jail, he said. The average for July 2003 to June 2004 was 76 federal inmates. During that time, the jail as a whole averaged 774 local inmates, for a total average jail population of 850. Forsyth County's request for a higher reimbursement rate likely won't be approved anytime soon, Carleton said. The Justice Department has put a moratorium on raising reimbursement rates for local jails through the end of September. After that, the higher rate can be approved and likely would be, he said. The decision would be retroactive and Forsyth County would get the additional money during the months of waiting, he said. |
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