Instead of a tale of two cities, Marion County is dealing with a tale of two jails: state and county.
The state side is self-sufficient, but the county side has been losing an average of thousands of dollars a month.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Aug. 8, Sheriff Berkley Hall and Warden Derek Mingo met with the county board to discuss the status of the Marion County Regional Jail.
Currently the state pays a minimum of $23.94 per day per inmate for 270 inmates. Any additional state inmates are paid at the rate of $20 per day per inmate. However if there are less than 270 inmates, the state still pays for the entire 270 inmates.
Hall said the state is contracted with the facility for the next five years.
Hall and Mingo approached the board about budgeting for the new year, requesting an increase for the county side of the jail.
The county side of the jail has been losing money. The issue is the county side is spending what is allocated to it in the budget but the revenue that has been coming in is not equaling the expenditures.
“On the county side, we are still losing money,” Charlie Prince, board CPA, said.
He said the losses are averaging $50,000 a month in the general fund.
“We cannot continue to move forward today like we have been,” Prince said.
Mingo mentioned the county side would have to charge $35 per day per inmate to make it work.
“We are going to have to get the county side in-line with the state side,” Mingo said.
“We are basing our rate on the average number of inmates and not the number of beds and that is causing a shortfall,” Hall said.
Mingo said the county side has to be maintained as if the jail is full. He said he cannot budget with day to day fluctuation with the numbers of inmates. He stated they cannot know when there would be a drug raid, which could cause a large increase or possibly additional housing of inmates from other counties.
There are currently 210 beds on the county side, according to Hall.
Hall said a deal for the county side of the jail needs to be similar to the deal with the state side of the facility in order to make it work properly.
“We have to budget for the beds, not for the averages,” Hall said.
He explained the county needs to pay for a set number of beds each month (e.g. 200) similar to what the state is paying.
A final decision has not been made.
The county’s budget for a new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, and supervisors will already be handicapped by a decrease in the assessed value of the county when trying to fund operations.
