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OUT-OF-COUNTY INMATES = BIG BUCKS
Thursday, October 21st, 2010 -- 11:34 am
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
 Tight budgets have put many area counties in the strange position of fighting over inmates.
Clark County has a 126-bed jail facility. On any given day, there might be 50 to 80 prisoners there. Some from other counties without enough jail space of their own.
For instance, Portage County houses excess prisoners in Clark County. They pay Clark County $40 per day. That really adds up. It’s an extra $425,000, or so, to help offset the cost of the 11-year-old facility.
But, at the end of the year, Portage County will send those inmates to Lincoln County, who will only charge $32 per day.
"Portage County was looking for a better deal, and Lincoln County granted it," explains Clark County Sheriff Louis Rosandich.
While the county has to operate the jail facility regardless of how many inmates they have, there is definitely a cost associated with looking after each prisoner. At $40 per day, the department estimated they were making about $12 to $17 per inmate.
"That is the profit. We have to keep the lights on, we have to keep the water running, we have to have staff. We are, at least, using this facility to generate revenue for the county," he says.
BIDDING WAR
He recently heard from Trempealeau County. They currently send their excess inmates to Chippewa County, but might be looking for a better deal.
Meanwhile, a number of counties have looked into building larger facilities so they don’t have to pay another county for the service. Eau Claire may be the next.
"I'm sure they're going to look at the possibility of housing out-of-county inmates. I go back to Vernon County. We housed their prisoners for a number of years, they built a new facility and, my understanding is they're now housing out-of-county inmates," Rosandich notes.
At around $2.5-million per year, the jail facility accounts for about half of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department’s budget.
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