County jails decry recent cuts in payments for state prisoners

Washington County commissioners expressed their exasperation Tuesday that Minnesota counties soon will have to pay even more to house short-term state prisoners in county jails.

Each prisoner in Washington County costs $117.46 a day for food, security and other expenses, for which the state currently provides $30. The county estimates that reimbursement for state prisoners will dwindle to $10 a day in 2009. Costs of housing all prisoners, meanwhile, have nearly doubled since 1998, county records show.

Under state law, state prisoners who have 180 days or fewer remaining to serve when they are sentenced go to jails in the counties where they committed their crimes.

In Washington County, that means housing an average of 12 state prisoners a day as costs are rising, said Sheriff Bill Hutton.

Sheriffs and county jails all over Minnesota are coping with the same problem.

In the 2007 fiscal year, more than $1.2 million was appropriated to the state Department of Corrections for reimbursement to counties that house short-term prisoners. Divided equally among the average total number of prisoners across the state for whom counties asked for reimbursement, each county received $9.89 per prisoner.

The Legislature allotted $3.7 million for the same reimbursement for the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years, allowing $28 to $30 anticipated reimbursement per prisoner per day. However, budget cuts reduced the 2009 fiscal year reimbursement allowance to $1.6 million, with reimbursements expected to again hover around $10 per prisoner per day.

Washington County

In Washington County, commissioners complained Tuesday about the shift of state expenses to county taxpayers after Administrator Jim Schug outlined recent legislative developments. Commissioner Dick Stafford, who represents Woodbury, seized on declining jail funding as a particularly worrisome development.

"This one is so obvious and flagrant that we'll hold it up every chance we get," he said.

Washington County records show that the county will need to find $96,000 more to cover the state's decreased reimbursement in 2009. Overall, that means the county will pay more than $515,000 in 2009 to house short-term state prisoners.

This year's reimbursement of $30 a day was a windfall compared with previous years, when counties received less than $10 per prisoner per day. However, Washington County records show the county paid more than $1.6 million to make up the difference between July 2003 and December 2007. Daily costs per state prisoner grew steadily from $65 in 1998 to the current $117.46, according to the records.

Commissioners in Washington County have long complained about state mandates that transfer expenses to county taxpayers. About 80 percent of the budget is dictated by mandates, the county has said.

Scott County

In Scott County, jail administrator Capt. Bonnie Case said housing offenders costs about $116 a day. Planning for expenses is difficult, she said, because of constantly fluctuating state support and numbers of offenders.

"I don't plan on much money coming from the state because I think it's too unpredictable," Case said.

Ramsey County

Roberts said that during the first half of 2007 -- the most recent six-month period for which a reimbursement was received -- the state provided $8.92 a day per offender, compared with actual costs of $95 a day. In total, the prisoners cost the county $908,580 during those six months, she said, of which the state paid just $85,404.

For 2008, Roberts said, the county expected a daily reimbursement in the mid-$20 range, but now will see a shortfall, the size of which has yet to be determined.

"We have to go back to the drawing board," she said.

Dakota County

In Dakota County, the law change means that county taxpayers will pay about 30 percent more per state prisoner in 2009, said David Bellows, chief deputy sheriff. The county houses an average of 14 state inmates a day for a total cost of about $500,000 a year, he said.

Dakota County currently spends about $95 a day to house each prisoner, Bellows said.

"Any time you increase the cost of county government because of the state shifting the burden, the money has to come from somewhere," he said. "The question is, how are we going to find a way to pay for it?"