Jail working on money-making contracts






By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com
Published: Saturday, September 19, 2009 10:16 PM CDT

At $5.5 million a year, the Hall County Jail is the most expensive county department to operate, but it's also a leading revenue generator.

In fact, in the first eight months of this year, the jail has brought in nearly $1.2 million from a contract to house federal detainees. Add in the money generated from last December, the month after the county signed that contract to house detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the dollar amount rises to $1.25 million.

It's a sizable amount for a service the county is banking on -- literally -- to offset the skyrocketing costs of criminal justice, which comprises 50 percent of the county's overall $45 million budget.

The plan

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Housing federal detainees is not new to Hall County. The county did it routinely until a 2000 fire in the county's old jail -- where federal detainees were held -- caused 45 inmates to be taken to the hospital.

But the completion of a brand-new county jail -- built in excess of the county's local needs -- could again accommodate housing other inmates or detainees.

In fact, jail consultants predicted in 2001 that the county could generate about $635,000 a year housing 35 inmates or up to $1.8 million housing 100 inmates a year.

The county used those predictions in setting a revenue projection in last year's budget. It directed Hall County Corrections Director Fred Ruiz to bring in $1 million of jail revenue during fiscal 2008-09.

Negotiations and schedules prevented a contract from being signed until six months into the fiscal year, but Ruiz was still able to generate $728,000 in federal revenue to the jail last year.

The county budgeted to bring in $1.7 million this fiscal year, which began in July.

It might be a conservative estimate considering the county took in $517,795 in first quarter ICE receipts and ICE holdings are on the rise.

The agreement was for Hall County to hold up to 75 federal detainees a day. The averages were 86 detainees a day in July and 108 in August. September has averaged 95 to 100 every day.

The high number of detainees, coupled with high local population numbers, have created milestones in the last two months.

"We broke the 250 barrier a couple of times, in fact we were up to about 260 and 270" inmates Ruiz said.

In July, there was an average of 260 inmates a day in the jail and 223 in August. The current daily jail population is about 235 to 250 inmates and detainees, he said.

But that may increase.

Ruiz said a thousand people were arrested and booked in between July 1 and August 31 for a jail that typically books in 5,000 people a year.

"That's a lot of folks we're running through."

It also may go up if Ruiz can move the jail to what he calls "the next level."

The next level

Last year the new jail was inspected under federal guidelines as part of the ICE contract. Out of 40 standards, Hall County met 34. The remaining six deficiencies -- largely pertaining to policies and procedures -- were quickly addressed, Ruiz said.

The result, found during a federal inspection Sept. 1-3 conducted by the MGT corporation, found Hall County had met all standards.

The lead inspector told Ruiz on the final day that he had "shocking news."

"Shocking in that we had passed every standard and this was not the norm for their inspection team," Ruiz told corrections workers in a memo sent to them about the test results.

"In addition, their definition of our operations was described as 'exceptional,'" Ruiz stated. "They are not used to having full compliance and we passed them all."

"This is truly a national perspective for appropriate standards for correctional facilities," Ruiz said, noting the inspectors were from Puerto Rico, Texas, South Carolina, and Alaska.

"They were very, very pleased," Ruiz said. "In fact their comment about our kitchen was it is head and shoulders above what they are used to seeing."

They praised the kitchen for being clean and efficient -- all 240 meals are served at once.

They also liked the jail medical services, administration and polices.

"We can bark all we want about policies and procedures, but if we don't have folks who go out an implement them day-in and day-out they're not worth very much," Ruiz said.

The credit goes to the supervisors who read and implement the policies and the officers who carry them out, Ruiz said.

County supervisors said the audit results are good news for the county.

"I did want to share with you how very, very proud we are of the corrections facility and the staff ? thank you for what you do," County board Chairwoman Pam Lancaster told Ruiz.

But he wants more.

"It's important that we stay even with the curve or ahead of it," Ruiz said.

He tries to anticipate what housing clients would want from him and the Hall County Jail.

"What they want is a safe environment for their detainees first of all, and they want a good product for a reasonable price and they want an appropriate relationship," he said.

Relationship means not having to argue about housing details. It's about knowing how many detainees can be placed there, how they will be treated and knowing they can and will be transported where they need to go when they need to go there. It's about service.

And there's pay for service.

"This ICE audit brought out some areas I think I'd like to pursue, Ruiz told county supervisors.

He wants to research being an accredited department. There's only one other in Nebraska -- in Douglas County.

"In our old facility -- we were never ready," Ruiz said.

But now he believes the staff and policies are ready to meet accreditation.

"It brings us a sense of professionalism -- a sense of credibility, a sense of protection for liable issues such as suicides, death in facilities, and on and on and on," Ruiz said.

Other revenue

Accreditation can also open the door to new sources of revenue and the federal contract isn't the only revenue source the jail has, even now.

Altogether, the jail turned over nearly $400,000 in revenues for July, August and part of September -- of which the federal contract made up $365,700.

Although the state's jail reimbursement program was eliminated by the Legislature earlier this year, the jail holds inmates for neighboring counties and has brought in about $14,000 there in the past two months.

It also makes money directly from inmates.

There are drug testing and fingerprinting fees.

Inmates, or their family members, put money on accounts, so inmates can buy vending items like candy bars and popcorn.

Many inmates pay house arrest fees and work release fees to get out of the jail completely if their charges are minor enough to allow it.

They also buy phone cards to talk with loved ones at designated times during the day. In fact, $6,500 worth of phone card talk time was sold in just the last 60 days.

"Our facility is just a small community out there," Ruiz said. "We have a lot of phones used."

Supervisors praised all the contracts and said any federal money brought in over the estimated $1.7 million will be used to pay back an $800,000 loan the county took from its inheritance tax fund to hire the staff needed for the new jail.

After that, the jail will be looked at to make up a lot of the money that will go directly back to the county's general fund to support other county operations.

ICE money

Here's the amount of money the Hall County Jail has brought in since it started housing federal detainees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement since it signed a contract in November 2008.

Month Dollar amount

December 2008 $46,962

January 2009 $146,982

February 2009 $122,736

March 2009 $125,227

April 2009 $143,187

May 2009 $143,054

June 2009 $179,661

July 2009 $186,082

August 2009 $152,052

Total $1,245,946




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