Sheriff secures tentative beds for feds contract

June 17th, 2010, 1:22 pm
by Jennifer Muir

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens has reached a tentative agreement with the federal government to house immigration detainees, her staff said today.

The deal, dubbed beds for feds, has been in the works for more than a year and is a linchpin in the sheriff’s $452 million operating budget.

The department would not reveal details of the contract, such as how much U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will pay the department for each inmate. But in recent budget negotiations, the sheriff estimated the contract would house up to 1,400 detainees and could prop up her department with a $12.5 million infusion.

“The sheriff is confident that with the tentative agreement we’ll be able to meet the challenges of the budget problems facing us in the coming year,â€