Money for jail up in air

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff

In the past, the state has funded half the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail budget, covering salaries and a portion of employee benefits at the four jails in Abingdon, Duffield, Haysi and Tazewell. The remaining half was split between the 10 localities served by the jails and money collected from housing federal inmates or prisoners from outside the region.
However, each locality signed a deal promising to cover what the state doesn’t. This year, Jail Superintendent Steve Clear said that could be an additional 10 percent, or $2.3 million. For Washington County, that means about $520,000 more than last year, upping its ante to $2.065 million. The projected numbers are based on the Abingdon jail boarding an average of 162 inmates from Washington County next year, about 25 more than last year, Clear said. At the end of the year, the jail authority returns any surplus dollars to the supporting localities.
According to a 2009 audit, housing, food and medical costs per inmate are $50.32 per day. The state reimbursed $35.25 of that, paying salaries and a portion of benefits plus $8 a day for each inmate.
Next year, Clear said, the state is projecting to cut its payment per inmate in half, to $4 a day, and cover a smaller portion of employee benefits. Total projected funding from the state for each inmate, Clear said, will fall to $28, leaving counties to fill in the missing $22.
By the end of the fiscal year on June 30, Washington County is projected to have paid $16.72 per inmate per day, Clear said. By the end of FY 2010, he said, the county will likely be shelling out $17.90. By the end of FY 2011, he said, the locality will be looking at paying $25.27 per inmate, per day, thanks to decreased state funding. In addition, localities will have to cover a higher percentage of employee benefits.
“Part of the $2.3 million (projected state cut this year) is a reduction on the part of employee benefits (that the state used to cover),” he said. “Some are saying there could be additional cuts.”
Compounding the budget this year is an expected decrease in federal prisoners because of the opening and expansion in the past few years of jails in Roanoke, Dublin and Lynchburg, providing more space for federal prisoners closer to their corresponding courthouses.
Meanwhile, there are certain guidelines the jail has to meet. For instance, there must be one officer for every three beds.
“We have guidelines we have to operate at so (if the state cuts funding) the expense is then passed on to the locality,” he said.
All of the Regional Jail Authority jails were built according to Department of Correction standards to hold a total of 896 inmates in one bed per cell throughout the four jails. Since opening, though, two beds have been place in cells, making room for 1,600 inmates across the Regional Jail Authority, Clear said. The jail in Abingdon can hold around 600 minimum-, medium- and maximum-security prisoners, 22 of those federal inmates. The Virginia Compensation Board provides salaries and a portion of benefits for 318 jail employees at the jails. An additional 10 employees’ salaries and benefits – including human resources, finance manager, accounts payable, administration assistant, IT staff and maintenance staff – are paid for by the localities. That number is down from 28 two years ago, Clear said. The state, so far, has picked up the salaries of the jail’s 254 officers and 64 nurses, clerical workers and other staff. As of Monday, the Abingdon jail employs 84 correction officers and houses 546 inmates, Duffield employs 74 correction officers and houses 426 inmates, Haysi employs 59 correction officers and houses 240 inmates and the Tazewell jail employs 38 correction officers and houses 180 inmates.
“Seventy percent of our overall budget is salaries and benefits, so when we’re talking about discretionary funds there are really not any,” Clear said.
He said inmate medical costs, food and utilities make up most of the other 30 percent of the budget.
Clear said cutting staff or salaries will not necessarily save the jail money.
“If we reduce salaries it means we’ll get less money from the state,” Clear said. “If we were to lay off employees all it would save (the localities) is a portion of the fringe benefits (they pay)… All you’d give up is state money.”
Clear said the jail’s administration is looking at ways to cut costs where possible. One option could be in purchasing. The jail authority buys most of its items such as uniforms and paper in bulk through its warehouse at the Abingdon jail. This year, it’s planning on buying everything, including medical and office supplies, in bulk.
Clear said they didn’t place medical supply bulk orders in the past because each jail’s medical facility had different needs and capacities so each head nurse ordered his or her own medical supplies. Clear also said the jails don’t have areas to store medical supplies so he didn’t want excess supplies, such as needles, in the jails.
“This year we’re looking at what we could responsibly store,” he said, and are purchasing bulk medical supplies through the warehouse. The plan may save the jails $15,000 to $20,000, he said. Purchasing bulk office supplies may save the jails $2,000 to $3,000, Clear said.
“It’s not going to give us a whole lot but every little bit counts,” he said.
The Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority board also upped inmates’ co-pay for a doctor visit inside the jail from $10 to $15. Not that that will bring in much money. Clear said few inmates have the money to pay anyway.
“Even though we charge, we rarely collect,” he said. “Very few have money, so you’re not going to collect.”
Last year, the jail collected $90,000 in co-payments while paying more than $2 million in medical costs, Clear said.
Clear said the jail can’t control who is arrested and spends time at the jail while suffering from diabetes, heart disease, liver failure, etc.
To continue to chip away at the coming shortfall, Clear said the jails five-year contracts for commissary sales and telephones are up in April. He plans to put them out for bid proposals again, hoping to get a more favorable percentage for the jail. The prices for phones and the store aren’t set by the jail, Clear said, but the jail does receive about 30 percent of the purchases. He said their inmate populations were low and unstable when they first opened and the bids were approved five years ago. Now that the entire jails’ population is around 1,400 Clear is hoping it may be able to get a larger percentage of the profits. He said he hopes to put the insurance up for bid, too, and maybe realize a cost savings.
“The truth of the matter is with them cutting state (funding) … the localities have no control over what they pay,” he said. “It’s a bad year all around.”
To contact Caitlin Sullivan e-mail csullivan@wythenews.com or call (276) 628-7101.