3,000 empty jail cells and counting

What if Minnesota counties built jails and the inmates didn't come? That's the predicament facing dozens of Minnesota counties.

From one perspective, it's a good thing that jail populations dropped: less crime and fewer inmates to support with tax dollars.

But there's a downside, too. Minnesota is littered with thousands of empty cells after counties overbuilt jails.

In Houston County, for example, officials are close to completing a new jail, but they have so few prisoners that they are questioning whether to open it. Letting the facility empty at least would save the money it would cost to staff it.

Sheriffs and county commissioners facing this same problem owe the public an explanation. And it's time they revealed their game plans for dealing with the new reality of surplus cells.

Among the solutions: working together regionally to use facilities efficiently and shutting down portions of them if necessary. At the same time, counties must be nimble enough to respond and open up capacity if inmate numbers rise again.

Counties landed in this situation because dozens of them either built new jails, expanded old ones or both in recent years. (Since 2003, the number of jail beds has jumped by nearly 2,000.)

Officials who approved the buildings also say they were encouraged by state corrections officials to either update or replace older, deteriorating facilities. Jails are independently run and operated by each county with taxpayer funds.

State corrections officials have no control over county facilities, other than collecting data, setting facilities standards and conducting inspections.

The unexpected drop in crime and inmates that started in the mid-2000s caught many county officials off-guard. Contrary to what even experts expected and projected, the recession did not produce increased crime and arrest rates.

About 3,000 jail beds sit empty on any given day in Minnesota. That's about the capacity of the state's 70 smallest jails among the 90 scattered across the state.

With fewer behind bars, per-inmate costs started to rise. In Scott County, for example, costs per inmate per day have jumped from $115 to $159 in the past two years, and the county is about to offer early retirement to jailers.

If they were building or expanding anyway, they thought, why not add a few additional cells and make a profit boarding other county's prisoners?

To address the problem of surplus beds, Houston County is one of 12 southeastern counties that are working together to figure out how cooperation might save them money. They're discussing ideas such as joint contracts on everything from food to health care to inmate uniforms.

They're also examining the idea of sharing regional facilities for women or certain categories of inmates. If all women or less violent offenders were sent to one jail in a several-county area, then each count could shut down underutilized pods or units.

That's a good model for the kind of discussions that need to occur among counties across the state.

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