County Jail Facing Crisis In Finances Sharp Increase In Inmate Numbers Creates Need To Pump $600,000 Into Budget

Six months ago, Spokane County started shifting some inmates from the county jail to Geiger Corrections Center as a money-saving measure.

About 150 inmates who used to live at the downtown jail now stay at the lower-security, lower-cost West Plains center.

But the expected $500,000 annual windfall hasn’t materialized. Instead, the county Corrections Department faces a “financial crisis,” said Jim Lindow, the county’s chief administrative officer.

County commissioners reluctantly agreed Tuesday to spend $600,000 more than budgeted on jail costs for the final three months of this year.

Unless something changes, Corrections Director Gary Oberg said his $5 million budget will swell to at least $7 million next year.

There was nothing wrong with the plan to move inmates, Oberg and commissioners said. Taxpayers save $15 a day if an inmate is housed at Geiger instead of the jail.

But the growth in new inmates at the jail is outpacing the transfers to Geiger.

The jail population averaged 650 inmates a day this year compared with 597 last year, said sheriff’s Capt. Jim Hill. It’s designed to hold 519.

“We’ve never had that sharp an increase in one year,” Hill said.

It reflects a jump in arrests, as well as stiffer mandatory penalties for crimes like adrunken driving and domestic violence, Hill said. It also reflects state population growth.

At the same time, the number of criminals sent to Geiger by federal courts has dropped steadily from a 1995 high of 270 a day. On Tuesday, Geiger held just 42 federal inmates.

The federal government pays Geiger $54 a day for each federal inmate, even though the actual cost of incarceration is $35. So, the county loses $19 used to subsidize other inmates every time the feds decide to send a prisoner elsewhere.

The county is taking several steps to shave costs.

Crews are beefing up security at Geiger. Once that project is done in mid-September, the center will start taking some probation violators and other county inmates considered an escape risk, Oberg said.

Earlier this summer, commissioners appointed a task force of city and county officials and judges to look for ways to cut costs.

That committee will report back to commissioners this month and may recommend capping the population of the county jail. Such a move would force corrections officials to increase the use of electronic monitoring and other low-cost alternatives, Lindow said.

The committee may also recommend other steps, such as building a courtroom at Geiger to reduce transportation costs to and from hearings.

Solutions must be found quickly, commissioners said.

“We’ve got to do something to stop the (financial) bleeding,” said Commissioner Kate McCaslin.

, DataTimes