Federal funding does little to offset expense, officials say

March 03. 2014 11:37PM
By Jennifer Learn-Andes

Luzerne County’s prison housed 184 undocumented immigrants charged with crimes last year, and county taxpayers are footing most of the bill, officials say.

The county received $130,081 in federal funding to offset costs for the 184 inmates lodged in the county lockup during the fiscal year running July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013.

This funding, provided through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, covers some of the prison manpower to supervise these inmates but does not reimburse the county for their lodging, food or medical care, said Correctional Services Division Head J. Allen Nesbitt.

Legislators also have discussed cutting funding for undocumented incarcerated inmates as part of federal budget debates, he said.

Instead of reducing funding, federal officials should be reimbursing the full cost of handling these inmates, which would have been more than $1.7 million for the 184 inmates, said county Councilman Stephen A. Urban.

Urban has scheduled a discussion about the topic at tonight’s council correctional services committee meeting, which he chairs.

The prison spends roughly $110 per inmate per day, which would bring the cost for the 184 inmates to $1.7 million because they were lodged in the county prison a combined 15,655 days during the 2012/13 fiscal year, Urban said.

“It’s not fair for taxpayers of our county to pay this. If the federal government enforced immigration laws and did its job, we wouldn’t have these undocumented workers in our prison system,” Urban said. “Federal legislators need to take ownership of this problem.”

The criminal alien assistance funding covers only unauthorized inmates who have committed felonies or at least two misdemeanor offenses for violations of state or local law if these inmates have been jailed for at least four consecutive days.

The county’s $130,000 award was part of $213.3 million provided to prisons in Pennsylvania. The state prison system received $1.77 million for 1,322 undocumented inmates last year, records show.

Five other local prison systems in the state reported more undocumented inmates than Luzerne County during the fiscal year: Montgomery County, 326; Lehigh County, 272; Bucks County, 236; City of Philadelphia, 231; and Chester County, 204.

Luzerne County officials have blamed illegal immigrants for contributing to prison overcrowding and rising prison costs since 2007.

The county is no longer forced to pay other counties to house inmates due to overcrowding, in part because a day reporting center allows about 90 offenders to remain at home, Nesbitt said. But avoiding the expense of outside lodging is a constant struggle, he said.

The population at the main prison has hovered around the 505-inmate capacity this year, he said. The minimal offender’s unit, built to hold 236, is averaging 190 inmates, compared to around 120 when Nesbitt became division head last May, he said.

“We’re bursting at the seams,” he said.

Urban said the illegal immigration problem is not going away because the number in the prison has been about the same since he raised the issue in 2007, when the count was around 180.

The county received $160,431 in funding from the Criminal Alien Assistance Program in the 2010-11 fiscal year for 206 inmates lodged for 17,622 days, Nesbitt said. The funding decreased to $11,332 the following year because the number of inmates remained about the same — 202 — but the length of stay was less at 13,666 days, he said.

Undocumented status is discovered during the prison’s background check, Nesbitt said. The federal government initiates deportation action against some but not all, he said.

Nesbitt also noted the statistics don’t include illegal immigrants charged with lesser crimes that don’t qualify for the federal funding.

While the reimbursement doesn’t come close to covering expenses, Nesbitt said he embraces any opportunities to recoup prison expenses.

The prison’s budget is $30.5 million this year, with $522,732 in expected revenue.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/1231413/Illegal-immigrants-in-county-prison-cost-$1.7-million