Published: October 01, 2008 10:29 pm      

County speaks out on jail tiff

jjacob@themeridianstar.com



Lauderdale County and the City of Meridian have had a row over the cost of housing city inmates at the county jail, and now, it seems, there are some hurt feelings.

Three of the Lauderdale County supervisors called a press conference Wednesday to defend their side of the argument.

In the past, the county has charged the city $23 a day per prisoner to hold city inmates in the county jail. Last month, they decided to up the price to $30, and informed the city that if they did not agree to the price before the contract expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30, all municipal prisoners in the county jail would be returned to the city. The county rejected a request from the city for a 30 day extension of the previous contract.

Sheriff Billy Sollie said that state law required an interlocal agreement for city prisoners to be housed in a county jail.

The city bit back by declaring a state of emergency, which allowed them to enter into an agreement with Newton County to house city prisoners in their jail for $20 a day.

Supervisors Ray Boswell (Dist. 5 and board president), Hank Florey (Dist. 1) and Wayman Newell (Dist. 2) held a press conference Wednesday to explain their side of the story. They said they hoped the city would still be willing to "negotiate" with the county.

Boswell and Florey continually side stepped questions as to whether they were willing to negotiate a price below $30, saying only that they felt the price was fair, until Boswell finally said, "I don't think this board can afford to go under $30. That's my opinion. I don't speak for the whole board."

According to Sollie, it costs the county $37.18 per day per prisoner to run the jail. County Administrator Mike Sumrall said Sollie got that number by dividing the jail budget by days of the year and average number of prisoners.

Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith said at a city council meeting Tuesday that it is unfair for the county to charge the city for jail use because city residents pay county taxes. Boswell and Florey said that they feel the $30 fee is fair because it is less than the cost to the county. Boswell also said that most county residents pay city taxes in the form of sales tax, and that the county provides services to the city, including animal control, the public library, and ambulance service.

"We represent the city residents, too," Boswell said.

Boswell said the county refused the city's request for an extension because they felt it was unnecessary. "We felt like the city had ample time," he said. "You either pay it or you don't pay it."

The city was notified of the board's plan to up the price on Sept. 12. The contract expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30.

Boswell put all the blame on the city for the dispute, saying, "It's them that don't show up to our meetings... Just about every time we've ever tried to negotiate with the city there's been a dispute... We can't make them negotiate but we would have liked for them to come and work with us."

"We need to talk and discuss this," Florey said. "This will be resolved."

Florey called for an end to arguments between the city and county. "There's been too much finger-pointing done through the decades... We just need to talk about it and get it resolved and not have these differences every year."

Sumrall said that, on average, approximately 20 percent of prisoners in the county jail are there on city charges. The county jail also houses state prisoners, for which they charge the state $20 per prisoner, per day.

Boswell said they can afford to charge less for state prisoners because they are able to put state prisoners to work.

Boswell said that "at least four members of the board and possibly five agree that $30 is a very fair price."

District 3 Supervisor Craig Hitt was reportedly unable to attend the press conference because of a conflicting appointment and did not return phone calls to comment about the jail dispute.

District 4 Supervisor Joe Norwood was out of town on business, but said in a phone interview, "I think $30 is a fair price... The only thing that, if I had to disagree with the whole situation, is the timing of this situation."

Norwood said he was unsure whether the city had been given ample time to work the new price into their budget, but added: "We went through this two years ago. We had two years to work out a contract and I think we should have done it in that time."

In 2006, a jail contract between the city and the county was allowed to lapse, and was not renewed until almost a month later. During that month, city detainees were held in cells at the police department that had not been used since before the county jail was constructed.

Sumrall said he is not sure if the city can legally go into a permanent jail contract with Newton County, but that he believes that when transportation costs are accounted for, housing prisoners there will cost the city more than $30 per prisoner per day.

The next regular scheduled meeting of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors will be Monday at 9 a.m. The next regular scheduled meeting of the Meridian City Council will be Tuesday at 9 a.m.