Sheriffs angry at Utah
They say the state owes them for housing inmates
Last week, Utah Department of Corrections officials reported that the $9.5 million 2005 fiscal year budget for jail reimbursements will run out this month, leaving an estimated $1.7 million shortfall, which counties will have to eat. Both county and state officials say the budget has consistently fallen short every fiscal year since the system was set up more than 15 years ago.
The problem has prompted some of the Legislature's leaders to call for a legislative audit of the state's jail reimbursement program.
Year after year, shortfalls cost counties tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, sheriffs say. While the state's 2006 fiscal year will kick in July 1, none of the new state funds can be used to cover the shortfall from the prior year.
"There's a definite distrust with the Legislature," said Davis County Sheriff Bud Cox, who is president of the Utah Sheriff's Association. According to the Davis County Sheriff's Office, the 2005 shortfall will leave the county to cover an estimated $420,000.
"I know both sides, and I'll be honest with you, I don't think the Legislature has kept its promise," said Sen. David Thomas, R-South Weber, co-chairman of the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee.
Thomas, who is the chief civil deputy attorney for Summit County, said he feels the Legislature has gone back on a deal struck with the sheriffs several years ago. That agreement was for the state to cover 70 percent of the costs of felons who are sentenced to do time in county jails.
A judge has two options in putting felons behind bars: He or she can send a felon to prison or send him to serve up to a year in a county jail.
Jails then send reimbursement forms to the Department of Corrections for the days inmates are incarcerated, at a rate of about $34 a day. In reality, with budget shortfalls, Cox said the state ends up paying about 60 percent, or less.
"We don't want to release them, we want the Legislature to honor its commitment to us, the county jail, and pay us for their inmates."
The law requires that if a judge sentences a felon to the county jail, the sheriff in that county must provide housing. Cox said the problem includes overcrowding. Thomas said currently there are only 68 available beds in county jails statewide. However, several new jail expansion projects are under way across the state.
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