The Department of Corrections hasn’t billed the federal government for boarding transferring prisoners since 2005, and now the local agency hopes to recover about $500,000. News reported by the Pacific Daily News services.

DOC staff is working to calculate exactly how much money is owed and will submit a bill to the federal government soon, Director J.B. Palacios said yesterday.

If the Federal Bureau of Prisons agrees with the calculations, the money will be paid to GovGuam coffers, Palacios said.

The money is owed to DOC for short-term incarceration of transferring prisoners. For example, if a fugitive who is wanted in the mainland is caught in Guam, the local prison might hold him for a few days before he is shipped off island.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is supposed to reimburse the local government for the cost of those prisoners, but the corrections agency stopped billing them in 2005, Palacios said.

“Clearly we are not going to fault anybody else,” Palacios said. “It was DOC who wasn’t billing.”

Although DOC owes about $7.5 million to the Federal Bureau of Prisons for Guam criminals that are held in off-island prisons, the $500,000 reimbursement can’t be used to offset part of that debt, Palacios said.

The reimbursement belongs to GovGuam, not DOC, he said.

janchavarie Federal Payments, Guam

Shrinking revenues from federal prisoners in the jail will be one of the budget challenges facing Blount County in the coming fiscal years. Still, county officials expect to hold property taxes at current levels in the next budget. Reported in the Daily Times.

When the commissioners shelved a proposal to build a new jail pod back in January, time began running out on a source of revenue the county has depended upon for years to subsidize jail expenses — the housing of federal prisoners.

Having already lost state certification of the jail because of overcrowding, Sheriff James Berrong made the only choice left to him, reducing the population of federal prisoners by roughly half.

“This time last year, we had about 180 federal inmates that were generating revenue for the county,” he said, adding the jail now housed about 91. “That’s going to impact the revenue the county has. … We’re talking about a lot of money, around $5,000 a day.”

The daily rate that the U.S. Marshals Service pays to house federal inmates in the Blount County Jail is $58.50 per inmate. Depending on whom you ask, the sheriff or County Finance Director Dave Bennett, revenue from housing federal prisoners during the current fiscal year will be about $1.5 to $2 million less than previous years, but, because the county had already built in reduced revenue estimates in the budget, the actual shortfall will only be about $500,000.

“We’ll have more than enough turnback to cover that,” Bennett said. “On next year’s budget, we’ll have to bump that (revenue) number down. I don’t feel like we need to go in and reduce the budget because we can manage that from an administrative standpoint and make sure the bottom line is not a negative.”

Slashing the number of federal prisoners housed locally has resulted in the jail being recertified by the state.

On Nov. 30, 2008, there were 443 prisoners housed in the jail — 164 federal, 66 state and 213 local. About half of the state prisoners were supposed to be in state custody but there were no available beds in state prisons. The jail is only certified for 350.

On Nov. 17, 2009, there were 380, 91 being federal inmates. About 40 were state prisoners. Although this still technically exceeds the population cap in the jail, the state allows a loophole.

“The state inmates don’t count against our bed count, so if we have 40 Tennessee Department of Corrections inmates (out of 390), for their purposes, we only have 350 inmates,” Berrong said. “They can’t leave their inmates there and use that as a tool to decertify us.”

The number of state prisoners in the jail is also declining, although Berrong said housing them is a net loss for the county and that the reduction in numbers would not hurt county revenues. The state only pays counties $35 per inmate per day to house its prisoners.

janchavarie Budgets, Federal Payments, TN Blount County

The Obama administration is expanding immigration checks to nearly all local jails, which could sharply increase U.S. deportation cases, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

By matching inmates’ fingerprints to federal immigration databases, authorities hope to pinpoint deportable illegal immigrants before they are released from custody. Inmates in federal and state prisons already are screened. But authorities generally lack the time and staff to do the same at local jails, which house up to twice as many illegal immigrants at any time and where inmates come and go more quickly. The effort is likely to significantly reshape immigration enforcement, current and former executive branch officials said …

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has made it “very clear” that her top priority is deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, said David J. Venturella, program director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We mean this, we’re serious about it, and we believe we need to put in an all-out effort to get this done,” said Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee for homeland security …

The program began as a pilot effort in October and operates in 48 counties across the country, including Fairfax County. This year, fingerprints from 1 million local jail bookings will be screened under the program. It also operates Dallas, Houston, Miami, Boston and Phoenix, according to ICE, and will expand to Los Angeles this year and nearly all local jails by the end of 2012. The effort differs from programs in several Northern Virginia counties where local law enforcement officers have been deputized to question suspects about whether they are in the country legally.

Under the new program, the immigration checks will be automatic: Fingerprints currently being run through the FBI’s criminal history database also will be matched against immigration databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security … Based on the pilot program, the agency estimates that if fingerprints from all 14 million bookings in local jails each year were screened, about 1.4 million “criminal aliens” would be found, Venturella said. That would be about 10 times the 117,000 criminal illegal immigrants ICE deported last year …

Venturella said ICE will give priority to deporting the most dangerous offenders: national security risks or those convicted of violent crimes. Based on initial projections, the agency estimates that 100,000 of these are “Level 1 offenders” and that deporting them would cost $1.1 billion over four years. Removing all criminal illegal immigrants would cost $3 billion, ICE estimated last year.

The long article in The Washington Post has more detail and background.

jakking Federal Payments, Federal Systems, ICE, Illegal Aliens

When the Springfield OR jail opens this fall, about $200,000 will vanish from the coffers of the Lane County Jail in Eugene.  Reported by the Eugene Register-Guard.

That’s how much Springfield pays the county annually to reserve five beds in the jail, — beds that Springfield no longer will need. The loss to the county, if not recovered elsewhere, may mean a decline in service at the county jail.  “That will be an impact to us,” Lane County Sheriff Russ Burger said. “We’ve got to figure out how we’re going to make that up.”

But the county could find itself in an even trickier position: a bidding war with Springfield to lease out jail beds.  The jail relies heavily on renting out beds to supplement the money it gets from the county general fund: Of the county’s $28 million correctional budget, which includes the jail and many other programs, more than $18 million comes from outside sources, including renting space in the jail.  The money the county earns through leasing beds helps cover some of the cost of running the 127 beds that the county provides for local offenders.  “For us, (renting beds) is an absolute necessity,” Burger said. “We would not be able to house as many local offenders if we didn’t lease beds out.”

The U.S. Marshals Service pays the county about $4.5 million a year to rent beds for federal violators. Eugene pays about $800,000 to reserve beds in the county jail. Another $4.5 million comes from the state to rent beds for certain categories of offenders and to fund other correctional work, said Capt. Doug Hooley, county adult corrections division commander.

Competition from Springfield would obviously be unwelcome.

jakking County-City Issues, County-State Issues, Federal Payments, Jail and Prison Construction, OR Lane County, Oregon, US Marshall's Service

Fifteen years after Congress promised that Washington would help states pick up the tab for imprisoning illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, California is receiving but a fraction — less than 12 cents on the dollar — of its nearly $1-billion annual cost.  Story from the Los Angeles Times.

Officials from states greatly affected by illegal immigration long have argued that their taxpayers should not have to bear the burden for Washington’s failure to control the border.   But Congress this year provided $400 million nationwide to cover the cost of keeping illegal immigrants behind bars, less than what was provided a decade ago …

California officials are stepping up their efforts to snag more money from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a letter to Washington lawmakers last week that boosting the funding the state receives under the program was his top priority for federal criminal justice funding …

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, when she was Arizona governor, was a leading advocate of boosting the program’s funding, telling Congress last year to “live up to its financial obligation” …

[California] — with about 19,000 illegal immigrants in prisons, or about 11% of the prison population — is projected to receive about $111 million of its $970-million expected cost this year for imprisoning illegal immigrants …

Boosting the funding has been difficult because the program is seen as largely benefiting a handful of states greatly affected by illegal immigration — California, New York, Texas, Florida and Arizona.   Lawmakers from other states say that any increase must be balanced against other spending and the need to reduce the federal deficit. Bush, in seeking to eliminate the appropriation, argued that the funds would be better spent to secure the border.   But other states increasingly are struggling to pay bills for housing illegal immigrants in state prisons and county jails. The Minnesota Department of Corrections, for example, spent about $19 million last year but received only about $1 million from Washington.

jakking California, Federal Payments, Illegal Aliens

At a time when local law enforcement agencies are being forced to cut budgets and freeze hiring, cities across Southern California have found a growing source of income — immigration detention.  This report from the Los Angeles Times.

Roughly two-thirds of the nation’s immigrant detainees are held in local jails, and the payments to cities and counties for housing them have increased as the federal government has cracked down on illegal immigrants with criminal records and outstanding deportation orders.

Washington paid nearly $55.2 million to house detainees at 13 local jails in California in fiscal year 2008, up from $52.6 million the previous year. The U.S. is on track to spend $57 million this year.  The largest federal contract in the state is with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, whose 1,400-bed detention center in Lancaster is dedicated to housing immigrants either awaiting deportation or fighting their cases in court. The department received $34.7 million in 2008, up from $32.3 million the previous year.  Some smaller cities have seen their income rise much faster. Glendale received nearly $260,000 in 2008, triple what it got the previous year. In Alhambra, last year’s $247,000 was more than double the previous year’s payments.

For some cash-strapped cities, the federal money has become a critical source of revenue, covering budget shortfalls and saving positions.  Santa Ana’s Police Department, for example, expects as much as a 15% budget cut and has had a hiring freeze since October that has resulted in more than 60 sworn and civilian positions remaining vacant, Police Chief Paul Walters said. To offset reductions, Walters plans to convert two multipurpose rooms at the 480-bed jail into dormitory rooms this spring. That will accommodate an additional 32 immigrant detainees, which he expects will bring in $1 million more in revenue each year. He also hopes to get approval to raise the nightly price per detainee from $82 to $87.
“We treat [the jail] as a business,” Walters said. “The cuts could have been much deeper if it weren’t for the ability to raise money there” …

The federal contracts cover nearly the entire cost of the jail, said Russell Davis, the jail administrator. On a recent day, the jail housed 20 Santa Ana arrestees, 283 U.S. Marshals prisoners and 165 immigration detainees. Some of the detainees, from Mexico, Vietnam, El Salvador and elsewhere, had landed in immigration custody after serving state prison sentences. Others were arrested after ignoring deportation orders or because of criminal records that made them eligible for deportation.     The contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency brought in more than $3.7 million in 2007 and $4.8 million last year.  If he had to do it all over again, Davis said, he would have built another floor on the jail.

There is a lot more detailed background in the article at the Los Angeles Times.

jakking CA Los Angeles County, California, Economic Issues, Federal Payments, ICE, Illegal Aliens

A new corrections audit raises questions whether Atlanta GA should continue to operate a city jail, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The report released Friday found that the city jail was over budget six of the last seven years —- despite two revenue-generating contracts to house prisoners for Fulton County and two federal agencies. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008, the department was about $4 million over budget, the audit found.  Both deals, the audit found, actually cost Atlanta way more money than they generate.  Atlanta houses inmates for Fulton County, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at a rate of $68 per day —- a loss of about $20 a day, the auditors found.

Leslie Ward, Atlanta’s internal auditor, said the city relies far too much on overtime because of chronic absenteeism among jailers. She also found that some space inside the jail isn’t properly used.  “I’m starting to wonder why we are in the jail business,” Ward said … About 1,044 inmates are housed in the Atlanta jail every day, two-thirds of them federal or Fulton County inmates, the audit found. “We need a holding cell, not a full-blown jail,” Councilman H. Lamar Willis said.

However,

Corrections Sgt. Ellis Williams, a leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unit that represents corrections officials, criticized the audit, saying it was “willfully, deliberately and intentionally done” to encourage city leaders to close the jail.

jakking County-City Issues, Federal Payments, GA Atlanta City, ICE

Nueces County TX Sheriff Jim Kaelin is looking at ways to reduce overcrowding at the jail and bringing in more money for the county, as reported by KRIS-TV:

At just under 90 percent capacity on Friday, the Nueces County Jail was close to be being overcrowded and Kaelin said some of the inmates shouldn’t even be there.  “Most of those that are in here are in here for a technical violation,” Kaelin said.  He added that 88 inmates are in the county jail for violating their parole, which means they were arrested for not checking in with their parole officer or were caught violating their curfew. Kaelin said those inmates are costing the county a lot of money and he’s considering releasing them from the jail.  “If push comes to shove, I’m going to put those non-offenders, those people who are out in parole violations, out of the jail,” Kaelin said …

He also said it is not the county’s responsibility to lock up inmates that were let out early from state prisons.  “I hate to see that: money being spent on housing violators that belong to the state. If the state believes they’ve screwed up on a technical violation, then take them back to the penitentiary. Don’t use your county lockups,” Kaelin stated.

If the sheriff can free up enough space in the jail, he could house between fifty to sixty federal inmates, which would bring money to the county and help with balancing the budget.

jakking County-State Issues, Early Release, Federal Payments, Overcrowding, TX Neuces County, Texas

County commissioners on Monday unanimously voted to approve a resolution declaring an intent to finish the second floor of the Delaware County OH Jail.  The Delaware Gazette reports:

The language of the resolution referenced that money for the construction would be raised by renting out space in the jail to house federal prisoners. Delaware County Sheriff Walter L. Davis III said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was also interested in paying the county to hold illegal aliens. In addition to finishing the jail, federal dollars would also pay for an additional 12 correctional officers and three school resource officers, he said … U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would provide $65 a day for each one of its prisoners housed at the jail, Davis said. The federal agencies would also cover medical expenses.

Davis said on Monday that the prisoners from the U.S. Marshals would “white-collar, non-violent” criminals. He also said 90 percent of the illegal aliens ICE handles are not criminal offenders beyond their illegal status in this country.   They would only be in the jail a short time while awaiting deportation.   “They’ll be in and out,” Davis said.   ICE is interested in renting 15 beds in the jail immediately, pending an inspection of the facility …

Costs of finishing the jail were not discussed at the meeting, although in November, Davis asked the commissioners at his year budget hearing for about $1,000,000 for the project.  To raise that amount without using local taxpayer money, the jail would need to house about 42 federal prisoners and/or illegal immigrants at $65 a day for one full year.

jakking Federal Payments, ICE, Illegal Aliens, Jail and Prison Construction, OH Delaware County

Nueces County TX commissioners are moving forward with solving the overcrowding issue at the county jail, which is one step closer to bringing federal inmates back to the jail.

Commissioners plan to spend nearly $1.8 million to get the McKinzie Annex up to state standards, which should open up space for 48 additional prisoners.  In spite of continued growth over the last two decades, Sheriff Jim Kaelin said the last time Nueces County updated facilities was with the opening of the Waco Street Jail in 1991.

On Wednesday morning, the jail was filled at 95 percent capacity and it has to be at 75 percent to even consider bringing in federal prisoners.   Due to that percentage, Kaelin said opening up the McKinzie Annex needs to be a priority.   “To court, that pod’s got to be open if there is anything in the future in regards to federal inmates coming back into our facility. I cannot do it, as it stands now,” Kaelin said.

The MSNBC story has more details.

jakking Federal Payments, Overcrowding, TX Neuces County

The St. Tammany Parish LA Sheriff’s Office is giving more and more beds in the parish jail to inmates who have already been sentenced by the state, netting the agency millions of dollars a year needed to keep the jail running but crowding out local suspects who have not yet stood trial.

About two-thirds of the jail’s 1,000 beds now go to prisoners held for state or federal agencies that pay for their incarceration, forcing law enforcement in St. Tammany into a complicated dance to determine which new offenders should be held and which can be released until their court date.  Throughout December, the jail was at or near capacity. About 595 beds were taken by state prisoners, and 48 beds went to federal inmates. Since August, at least half of the jail’s population has been made up of state and federal inmates.

Sheriff Jack Strain described the growing “for-profit” prisoner population as a desperation move, aimed at keeping the jail afloat in the face of a yearly $6 million budget shortfall. About $10 million in annual sales tax revenue is earmarked for the jail, but $16 million is needed to operate it every year … Holding paid prisoners means officials at the jail, which typically bumps up against its federally mandated maximum capacity, must regularly let new offenders out on lesser bonds more often than they would otherwise. And faced with the prospect of a greater shortfall if sales tax revenue drops further in a sputtering economy, Strain said he has called on parish officials to help plug the gap …

The Sheriff’s Office receives about $24 a day for each inmate it holds for the state and about $43 a day for each federal inmate. These inmates brought in about $4.4 million for the jail in 2008, according to statistics from the Sheriff’s Office, offsetting the majority of last year’s $6 million shortfall. It will cost about $10.6 million to pay for the salaries and benefits of jail employees this year, according to the facility’s budget. Other operating expenses make up another $3 million of the budget, and payments on the bonds used to build the jail will cost about $1.5 million. The rest of the budget is spent on repairs, maintenance, supplies and other needs …

Mandeville Police Capt. Ron Ruple said officers in his department frequently must consider whether to even bring an offender to the jail, or whether minor offenses should be handled with a court summons instead.  “This is not a Sheriff’s Office problem. This is a parishwide problem, ” Ruple said. “I think all the municipalities and all the parish leaders need to get together to solve it.”

jakking County-State Issues, Early Release, Federal Payments, LA St Tammany Parish

A program aimed at keeping alcohol-related offenders out of jail is saving money, and it’s helping the Minnehaha County SD Jail to sometimes bring in more than $10,000 a day in fees to house inmates from other jurisdictions.

In 2005, the 24/7 sobriety program began as a pilot in Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Winner. It aimed to reduce the number of alcohol-related offenders entering jails. Now, some sheriffs say the number of local inmates has been reduced. That has led to reduced costs and more space to rent out beds for federal inmates and inmates from other counties.  “It’s literally saving millions of dollars if we’re able to manage inmate numbers like this,” Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead said. “It saves the taxpayer money when those beds are filled by somebody else paying the bills” … “We’re not making any money on these prisoners,” Milstead said. “But while we’re having beds occupied by inmates paid by another agency, it allows us to do things like pay the debt service on the new jail, and to better cope with the increasing costs associated with inmate health care, prescriptions and mental health services.”

The sobriety program, which monitors people for alcohol and drugs, now is in 57 counties, with more than 2,000 people on the program being monitored by technology that includes daily Breathalyzer tests and urine tests, South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long said. Other sheriffs have reported reductions in local inmate numbers, and the program also has benefited sheriffs of counties that do not have jails, he said.  “I’ve been told that sheriffs of counties without jails have seen a cost savings because they are not having to rent as many beds in counties with jails,” Long said …

Minnehaha County charges its clients $76 to $78 a day to house an inmate, with prices negotiated on a regular basis, Milstead said. As a 400-bed jail, he said he is able to keep the jail mostly full and can sometimes bring in more than $10,000 a day in fees for housing government and other county prisoners.   “Our biggest customer is the federal government,” Milstead said.

The sobriety program ends up being self-sustaining, with those on the program required to pay fees for the testing and some of the technology. That raised enough money to pay for the program and its staff.

jakking Drug Treatment & Diversion, Federal Payments, SD Minnehaha County

Fewer federal prisoners has meant a drop in revenue at DeWitt County IL Jail, which has county officials worried about how the money will be replaced.

According to the 2009 county budget, $700,000 of the sheriff’s $2.1 million budget is expected to come from boarding prisoners for the federal government and neighboring counties experiencing overcrowding in their facilities.   DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey says the county’s bill to the federal government for December was $39,000, down from $70,000 in previous months. He said the jail, which has a capacity for 95 inmates, had been nearly full until about three months ago, when the number in custody dropped by up to 30 prisoners.  Massey said whatever the reason for the drop in revenue, a backup plan should be explored to avoid cuts in services.

jakking Federal Payments, Female Inmates, IL DeWitt County

An unexpected cut in federal funding will force Lane County OR to close about 20 percent of its jail beds starting Saturday, resulting in even higher rates of early release for inmates, Sheriff Russ Burger said.

Contrary to predictions last year, the number of federal inmates housed at the jail has not increased, and with that comes an absence of the federal money that pays to house them. Now the jail must close beds to make up the necessary savings in personnel and operation costs.  “The number of people that we release (early) will increase,” Burger said. “It’s a continuation of the degradation of public safety in Lane County. We’ve got to find another source of revenue to pay for the services that the community needs.”

The county jail has about 500 beds, but more than 100 aren’t in use due to the county’s persistent shortage of revenue. Consequently, 3,000 to 4,000 inmates are released each year without serving full sentences for felony and misdemeanor convictions.

The shortfall will force the closure of 84 jail beds, a process that will take about a week and lower the number of available beds to 316, Burger said.  Within that, the number of beds for local offenders will drop to 93, from 151.

The jail gets about $100 per day for each federal inmate it houses. That money pays to house local offenders as well, because it covers the cost to operate housing units that hold local and federal inmates, Burger said. But the U.S. Marshal’s Office will not follow through with plans to house an additional 20 inmates in the jail this year. That leaves a hole of more than $700,000 in the budget, Burger said.

Public safety expenses consume more than 60% of the county’s entire budget, a budget severely damaged by losses in Federal timber licenses.  More details available at The Register-Guard.

jakking Federal Payments, OR Lane County

The future of the Missouri River Drug Task Force, an anti-narcotics unit that includes 10 police detectives from seven counties in southwestern Montana, may depend on whether its officers can confiscate enough drug money to pay their own salaries. That’s because the task force, like hundreds of other specialized state and local law-enforcement teams across the country, relies heavily on a federal funding stream that Congress slashed by 67 percent late last year … Similar scenarios are playing out across the nation, as cash-strapped law-enforcement teams from California to Pennsylvania come to terms with potentially crippling cuts in funding under a key federal grant program. State and local governments, struggling as the U.S. economy falters and tax revenues flatten, are unable to help.

Stateline covers this story in detail.

jakking Economic Issues, Federal Payments, Grants

Helping Inmates Obtain Federal Disability Benefits looks at three programs—in the State of Texas, the city of Philadelphia, and the State of New York—that assist inmates in preparing and filing prerelease applications for Federal disability benefits so they can continue to receive treatment without interruption after they are released from prison or jail. The results of the research indicate that helping offenders obtain Federal benefits not only can increase releasees’ access to care, but also can reduce the financial burden on State and local governments that fund indigent health care systems.

jakking Federal Payments, Inmate Health Care, New York, PA Philadelphia, Texas