Regional Jail Faces “Austere” Budget
The Northwestern Virginia Regional Jail faces cuts in next year’s budget due to less money from the state and a loss of federal inmates. Superintendent Bruce Conover said that “This budget is austere,” according to NVReport.
The proposed $17.2 million fiscal 2010 budget assumes the jail will receive approximately $1.5 million less in revenue than it saw in the current year, including a gap of $717,000 due to a lack of inmates from outside agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Prince William County. Another $506,000 shortfall is due to a 7 percent reduction in state per diem and salary assistance, and another $270,000 is from the implementation of an aid-to-locality reduction for 2010 …
Inmate population has an impact on the jail in both its expenses and revenue. According to Conover, the jail population has stayed around 525 for months. “We all kind of anticipated that when the economy had gone bad that we’d see an increase in the inmate population,” Conover said. “It hadn’t happened yet.” The jail saw its average daily population rise to 598 in fiscal 2007 and 623 in 2008. The facility returned a number of inmates to Prince William County’s jail when its facility completed an expansion …
The draft budget includes an overall 9.1 percent reduction in spending and seeks to cut operating expenses by 11 percent. The assistant superintendent position remains frozen and unfilled; a nurse and two administrative positions also will not be funded through attrition. Conover said the jail anticipates a reduction of 12 positions in the next year.