Federal inmates may return to Cape County jail

Cape Girardeau County Jail may be getting some of its federal prisoners back after they were removed by the U.S. Marshall Service Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan said.

The jail, which had been counting on the $50.82 per day it had received for each federal inmate it had been housing, lost 19 of those prisoners in April because of a security breach.

Now, the U.S. Marshall Service is slated to meet with the Sheriff's Office sometime this week to negotiate the return of those inmates if the jail conditions meet with their approval.

Jordan said he expects the jail will pass inspection and the federal prisoners will be returned. Some of the issues that needed to be discussed were food service and laundry. The jail works closely with nutritionists to ensure that proper dietary standards are met.

The incident that sparked the jail's revocation of federal inmate privledges took place on April 2, when two male inmates managed to slip into a cell block that housed only females.

One of the two culprits had a girlfriend, also a federal inmate, housed in that cell block, and they created a diversion in order to get past security, spending about four hours in the restricted area.

The two men, federal detainees awaiting trial, created a diversion to distract guards with the help of other inmates, Jordan said. The two were later discovered in the women's cell block with one of the men's girlfriend, who is also awaiting trial on federal charges.

The U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for federal prisoners, immediately removed a handful of the federal inmates from Cape Girardeau County custody.

Last year the county received $642,873 for housing federal prisoners, with an average of just less than 35 prisoners per day. They had been using the money to assist in making the payments on the several million dollars still owed on the six-year-old jail building.

bdicosomo@semissiourian.com

335-6611, extension 245