Thread: IA: Jail captures funds from annual SCAAP grant

10/14/2008
Jail captures funds from annual SCAAP grant
Emma Struve

Rod Bradley, Denison Chief of Police, applied for a federal SCAAP grant to help offset the cost of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens.

SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program) is administered by the U.S. Department of Justice in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and provides payment for officer salary costs incurred during the incarceration of aliens convicted of at least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions for violating either state or local laws. To qualify, the inmate must be incarcerated for at least four consecutive days.

This program was initially enacted in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and was most recently reauthorized in 2005 for effect through 2011. The Denison jail, used both by the city and county, has been applying for, and receiving, grant funds since 2003.

The grant application must include the number of total criminal alien days calculated by multiplying the number of inmates by the number of days incarcerated.

In 2008 the number of days equaled 867.

The five-year average for criminal alien days has been 1,045.

Bradley attributes the decline to a change in bond rules from the Iowa Supreme Court. Previously, the bond was calculated by adding bond amounts for each of all charges. Now, the total bond would be considered the highest bond assigned for one of any charges. Therefore, more people were able to make bond and get out of jail faster so they did not meet the four-day minimum.

The application also takes into account the daily cost per inmate, a figure composed of staffing costs, which is used to compute the total annual cost. Considered in the complete formula are the total amount of funds available, the number of applications, and the number of alien days; then these figures are used calculate the projected reimbursement.

Crawford County has been granted $8,109 for 2008. This money is specifically relegated to the costs of running the jail as is required by the grant guidelines.


FUNDS . . . Page 7A

FUNDS, from Page 1A


The application has been Bradley's responsibility but benefits both the Crawford County Sheriff's Office as well as the city police department. When the new jail was built the county purchased enhanced booking software that makes record retrieval very efficient and the grant application more accurate.

Every state has applied for some assistance and the federal program paid out more than $386 million in 2008. California received the most funding, in excess of $161 million; Texas was a distant second receiving approximately $28 million. By comparison, Iowa counties received a total of $686,422.


www.southwestiowanews.com

Texas would get more if they ID all the Illegal Aliens in jail