COUNTY TO HOUSE INMATES AT GIBSON

JACKSON -- An agreement allowing Cape Girardeau County to house jail inmates at The Gibson Recovery Center is nearly final. Inmates could be moved to the center at 1112 Linden in Cape Girardeau as early as mid-November.

Sheriff's Lt. Mike Morgan, who oversees the county jail, said a contract with Gibson would alleviate overcrowding at the jail in Jackson. Jail capacity is 65, and when the number of inmates reaches into the low 70s they must be housed elsewhere.

Prices for keeping inmates at facilities in other counties run between $15 and $45 a day plus expenses of moving them. Gibson would keep them for $20 a day and provide food and bedding. The county would provide medical, laundry and transportation services and prisoner blood and urine testing.

Gibson, which offers drug and alcohol therapy, would have to remodel before taking prisoners, Morgan said. The center was constructed to keep people out, not in, so security equipment must be installed. There would be round-the-clock supervision of inmates at the center.

Morgan and Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp are working out particulars of which inmates would be moved to Gibson. Only those who aren't deemed high escape risks would be allowed to stay at the center, which Morgan described as "a pretty nice place."

"When it comes time for sentencing, the judge will ask us to check into the person's history and see if he would be a good candidate for Gibson," Morgan said. He said those assigned to Gibson must be minor escape risks so that the center staff is not put in jeopardy.

County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said there is no legal impediment to keeping inmates in a private facility. The sheriff's department is allowed to use discretion in where it puts prisoners, even if that means keeping them in their homes with electronic shackles.

It hasn't been determined whether inmates would be allowed to participate in drug and alcohol therapy sessions for free or if they would have to become Gibson clients. Either way, the county wouldn't pay for therapy, Swingle said.

County commissioners said they have no objections to the plan.

"The main thing will be making sure it is the minor offender who goes over there, not a big troublemaker," Commissioner Larry Bock said.