Soon, state prisoners won't be sent to county jails

Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed legislation to end the much-despised short-term offender law. The practice will end July 1.

By KEVIN GILES, Star Tribune

Last update: May 20, 2009 - 1:03 PM

State prisoners won't be sent to Minnesota's county jails after July 1, ending a practice that angered counties and cost them about $4 million a year.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed legislation over the weekend to repeal the short-term offender law, Keith Carlson, executive director of the Metropolitan Inter-county Association, said Monday. The six-year-old law required counties to house felons who had 180 days or less remaining on their sentences.

Counties complained because the state's reimbursement -- this year, $10 or less a day -- fell far short of the full cost of meals, security, medical bills and other county expenses. Counties closed the gap by assessing property taxpayers the difference.

"I think it's a very appropriate decision," said Sheriff Bill Hutton in Washington County, where daily expenses for one inmate cost $124. "They're righting a wrong, and that's good."

Sheriffs criticized the law for other reasons, too, including that it mingled more crime-prone felons -- many of them repeat offenders -- with inmates either awaiting trial or serving short sentences for lesser crimes.

Minnesota's county jails averaged 360 state prisoners a day in 2008, according to Department of Corrections records. That's the most ever and substantially more that the daily average of 233 in 2004.

While counties sometimes have had to rent beds elsewhere because of crowded jails, prison capacity has grown with a major expansion of the medium-security state prison at Faribault. That prison will be able to house about 600 more inmates this year.

Some state prisoners will remain in county jails through December depending on when they were sentenced, Carlson said.

"We're quite happy with the outcome that the state's taking back their prisoners," he said.

Kevin Giles • 612-673-4432

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Governor: Tim Pawlenty
One of only a few prominent Republicans to win a competitive re-election contest in the Democratic sweep of 2006, Tim Pawlenty is widely seen as politically shrewd and naturally likable.

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