CUMBERLAND COUNTY
Company could help jail get money for illegal immigrants
Thursday, December 20, 2007
BY MATT MILLER
Of Our Cumberland County Bureau
Cumberland County's prison board might hire a Texas firm to help get federal money for holding people accused of being illegal aliens.

Justice Benefits Inc. helps other Pennsylvania counties secure such grants, Warden Earl Reitz said. Dauphin County obtained more than $50,000 through the firm last year, he said.

"The only thing we have to do is give this company a list" of inmates who are undocumented aliens, Reitz told the prison board during a Monday meeting.

He couldn't estimate how much money could be secured. It costs $55 a day to house and feed an inmate, he said.

"It does seem like we are seeing more [suspects]. It's not overwhelming. You see one here, one there," Reitz said.

Prison officials work with federal immigration authorities to determine if prisoners are in the U.S. illegally, he said. Reitz said those inmates must answer to their local criminal charges and serve their sentences before being handed over to immigration officials.

Dallas-based Justice Benefits would review the prison's roster of people accused of being illegal aliens and apply for federal money to reimburse the county for their housing and treatment, the warden said.

"We do not have the resources to do this on our own," he said.

The firm would receive 22 percent of the grant money it secures, Reitz said.

The prison board told him to gather more information.

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