Federal inmate payments boost sheriff's budget

Who says crime doesn't pay?

In 2002, the number of federal inmates housed at the Cape Girardeau County jail produced enough revenue to pay for the jail's bond payment, plus an additional $320,000 more to offset the cost of keeping them.

The sheriff's department received a total of $771,408 worth of reimbursements for housing federal inmates last year.

An official at the county auditor's office said the bond payment varies from year to year. Last year, the county paid $337,000 on the debt service payment and another $114,000 in interest.

According to Gerald Jones, the county's presiding commissioner, the original plan was for the federal money to cover the cost of the bond payment. An additional $300,000-plus, he said, means that the jail was a good business decision.

"It's not only making the payment, it's helping feed those rascals," he said.

Savings on inmates

What makes the deal seem even sweeter, Sheriff John Jordan said, is that before the jail was built, the department was paying anywhere from $250,000 to $350,000 for other institutions to hold inmates that the county's old facilities could not. Plus, the federal government chipped in $1.5 million for the construction of the jail, which cost $8 million to build.

"Justice and law enforcement will never be a money-making endeavor, but we try to bring in money to help offset the costs," said Jordan, whose office is located in the new facility. "That's why we have the building we're sitting in right now."

The reimbursement is paid monthly, at a rate of $50.82 per day per inmate. The county is required per its contract to hold 42 beds for federal inmates, and the 15-year contract with the U.S. Marshals Service guarantees 33 prisoners a day. The jail has 152 beds in the new facility and 65 in its adjoining old facility.

The jail is currently holding 37 federal inmates, Jordan said. The jail has held as many as 50 at one time.

A fraction of the total reimbursement came from non-federal prisoners shipped up from Scott County while its new jail was being completed in Benton.

"It's been a good investment," said Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Larry Bock. "We built the jail for the future local population, and if the county population increases, we've got room to grow. But with the federal prisoners, it's helping pay for the construction of the jail, although with keeping the additional prisoners, the expenses are more."

In 2000, the year before the jail was built, the department's total expenditures -- including salaries, patrol-car upkeep, office supplies and everything else -- were $2.4 million, which is roughly $420,000 less than the department spent in 2002.

The department, since the opening of the jail, has added 11 jailers and roughly $200,000 to the payroll.

About another $100,000 of the increase in budget comes from annual cost-of-living salary increases, Jordan said.

All told, the sheriff department's overall expenditures in 2002, including the bond payment, totaled $3.25 million. Its total revenue and reimbursements were $1.62 million, leaving the actual cost of the department at $1.63 million. That's an average annual expense of $23.80 per county resident.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635