Thread: PWC: Jail costs higher than expected

I did a search and didn't see this posted yet.


By Cheryl Chumley

Published: August 7, 2008

County jail officials found the costs of housing, transporting and medicating criminal illegal immigrants to be higher than anticipated and asked Prince William supervisors Tuesday to OK the use of $779,175 in federal funds to balance their budget.

"Throughout the year we did see adult medical costs and pharmaceuticals for illegal immigrants that were in our system. The one thing that did run the costs up was the transportation costs … to move inmates to other facilities," said jail superintendent Col. Peter Meletis. "We did run a shortfall and we're requesting this amount to take care of the shortfall."

The $779,175 does not represent county tax dollars but rather earned revenues from the federal level for per diem 287(g) program charges. In other words, the $779,175 is almost a shortfall of technicality—county coffers already had "the additional revenue billed and collected," board documents read. The jail just had to formally request the budget amendment and appropriation from supervisors.

"[This amount] we earned—the county and the city [of Manassas] earned—through the per diem of the federal government paying for the ICE inmates in our system," Meletis said.

The breakdown of expenses that led to the request for $779,175: the jail reported $129,860 in employee overtime related to the 287(g) program; costs of housing inmates exceeded projections by $413,415; and medical and drug costs soared above budgeted amounts by $179,009.

Clothing and supply costs added another $19,030 and $37,861 in unexpected expenses, respectively, according to board documents.

"The ADC has collected $779,175 federal revenue in fiscal year 2008, as a result of the 287(g) effort," board documents reported. "This revenue was unbudgeted due to the uncertainty of the program size or the length of time the ADC would be housing illegal immigrants."

Between July 2007 and now, jail officials placed 860 detainers on inmates for charges related to illegal immigration, Meletis said.

ICE officials, meanwhile, have "picked up, transferred to ICE 747 in the last year," he added.

Supervisors unanimously voted to appropriate the $779,175 to the jail.

"This is the cost of implementing our illegal immigration ordinance," said Supervisor John Jenkins, D-Neabsco.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.

http://www.insidenova.com/isn/news/loca ... ted/19513/

Amazing what can be Googled by something as simple as requesting "prisoner Viagra" stats, but here is an article from 2006:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GovPubs/dojpr2.htm

It seems Viagra is a part of their meds world wide.