Pasco County Latest To Plan Jail Closure
Under pressure to do his part in a severe budget crunch, Pasco County FL Sheriff Bob White on Monday announced the centerpiece of his cost-savings plan: Closing the New Port Richey jail and transferring the roughly 200 inmates to the Land O’Lakes jail. Reported by the St Petersburg Times.
The jail consolidation is part of a nearly $85 million sheriff’s budget request that cuts overall spending by nearly $820,000, avoids layoffs, freezes salaries and includes 18 new positions, including eight patrol deputies. “We’re going to have to make sacrifices,” said White.
But the sheriff’s proposed 2009-10 budget represents less than a 1 percent decrease from the current year — well below the 15 percent reduction that Commission Chairman Jack Mariano had requested in letters to White and the other constitutional officers. A 15 percent reduction would mean nearly $13 million in cuts. Commissioner Ted Schrader said Monday that White’s proposed reductions were a start. “At least it’s a reduction as opposed to an increase,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re still faced with a huge deficit.”
White touted the jail consolidation as a $3.5 million savings because he had previously anticipated needing to hire 34 personnel to operate the new wing at the Land O’Lakes facility. That wing’s first two floors, which can hold more than 500 inmates, are scheduled to open later this year. By moving staff from the New Port Richey jail, the new annex will need to hire only 10 people: eight detention officers and two nurses …
In recent months, Sheriff White has been chipping away at his costs through reorganization, the elimination of certain programs and some contractual changes. For instance, he got rid of the air and the community policing units. He also eliminated a program that assigned deputies to supervise defendants released on recognizance. He included in his letter to Pasco commissioners Monday some of the smaller cost savings from his office, including:
• $60,000 by getting a new cell phone contract
• $15,000 by eliminating three accreditation processes
• $10,000 by suspending out-of-county training for certain staff
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