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Regional Jail Closes Pod To Save Money

March 29th, 2009
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va_northwest-regional-jailThe Virginia Northwestern Regional Jail Authority will cut costs this year by keeping more than 100 beds — an entire housing pod — empty.  Report from the Winchester Star.

“It’s saving us money in man-hours and utilities … around a half-million dollars,” Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center Superintendent Bruce Conover said Thursday after the authority adopted its $17,299,092 budget for fiscal year 2010. The budget, which takes effect July 1, is $1,573,984 lower than the current budget of $18,878,477.

The jail’s tighter budget is a ripple effect spreading from local governments’ efforts to cut spending.  The detention center is funded mainly by contributions from Winchester and Frederick, Clarke, and Fauquier counties.   For the next fiscal year, all of those localities are reducing their contributions … Along with closing the pod, the jail authority is cutting costs by eliminating 12 positions it expects will become vacant this year through attrition, and by cutting weekend meals for prisoners to just brunch and dinner …  The detention center is built to hold up to 824 prisoners. It has 533 now, and has housed an average of 510 to 530 inmates per day for several months.

Conover said Thursday that closing the pod will save the jail money that would have been used to feed, clothe, and guard inmates who would have been housed there.  However, while housing inmates in the now-vacant pod cost money, it also generated revenue … According to Conover, the pod last year housed around 100 federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement prisoners who have since been transferred to a larger facility, and around 40 prisoners from Prince William County who stayed at the detention center while the Manassas jail was expanded.  Conover said the detention center collected $717,000 in revenue from housing those prisoners.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, Regional Jails, VA Northwest Regional Jail, Virginia

Regional Jail Faces “Austere” Budget

February 23rd, 2009
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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.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, ICE, VA Northwest Regional Jail