By BRADEN LAMMERS
The Clark County Commissioners recently approved exploring the option of eliminating the county’s work-release program, but the program’s director doesn’t believe that’s a good idea fiscally.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Department receives $35 per day for each state prisoner it houses at the county jail and it is looking into the possibility of adding inmates to the third floor of the county building that currently houses the work-release inmates. But in order to add the new state inmates, the space would have to be cleared of the work-release program, which occupied the newly renovated $3 million space in 2008.
According to Steve Mason, director of Clark County work-release program, eliminating the county’s work-release program would cost the county money. Clark County receives about $700,000 from Indiana’s Department of Corrections each year in the form of a grant to operate the work-release locally.
While no determination on cutting the program has been made, a decision is likely before the grant runs out June 30 and would have to be renewed. If the county does not apply for the grant, the money would likely go to another county still operating a work-release program.
In addition to losing out on grant money, according to Mason, the program saves the county thousands.
A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
Over a two-year span, Clark County Community Corrections collected nearly $650,000, reduced the county jail’s operating expenses by more than $800,000 and the state’s by more than $1.2 million, he said.
It costs the state $52.60 per day to hold an inmate at a state facility, $35 for the county and $15.50 per day is paid by the participants of the work-release program. By having the inmates participate in the local program, essentially the higher cost is avoided because the prisoners would otherwise be shuffled back to the state or county jail.
“We save the county money, we don’t cost the county a thing,” Mason said. “It’s cheaper for the state to give us money rather than have them housed at their facility.”
In addition, the work release program pays the jail $70,000 in rent per year — $60,000 in utility bills and an additional $10,000 in supplemental jail maintenance and employee salaries.
During the last two years, the work-release program has housed 265 inmates, who are normally nonviolent offenders or near the end of their sentences.
The participants in the work-release program are normally recommended by a judge or prosecutor to the program, which acts as a transition for the prisoners to rejoin the community and includes providing them with a job.
While the statistics on recidivism rates are not yet available for Clark County — they are determined every three years — Kenneth Whipker, executive liaison of sheriff and county jail operations for the Department of Correction, said its more beneficial to keep offenders local — and it’s cheaper.
The rationale for looking into replacing the program with state inmates is money, and by opening up the space for state inmates, the county hopes to address the revenue shortfalls that have been hampering the county.
“To make profit over the money generated by the work release program, the jail would have to house 44 state inmates, every day of the year, at $35 per inmate before Clark County Government generated a penny in profit,” Mason said in an e-mail.
According to Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden, the jail is housing 90 inmates from the state.
By multiplying the number of inmates currently held by the per-day-rate — if they were held for every day of the year — the county would receive about $1.1 million annually.
However, there is an operations cost of housing the additional inmates of between $300,000 to $400,000, which would bring the revenues received down to around $750,000.
If the third-floor of the jail were converted to house more inmates, the number that could be accommodated would increase by 125 individuals, Rodden said. Increasing the number of inmates to the maximum 125, the revenue grows to more than $2.7 million.
But again, operational costs would rise when adding inmates to the county facility, cutting into the revenues.
MORE TO COME?
The larger issue may be that the state may not be providing the county with any additional inmates.
“[It is] very unlikely Clark County would be able to house additional inmates,” Whipker said. “We need the beds that the [Sheriff] provides for us, but to add additional beds, that’s just not going to happen.”
Like most other government entities, the state is trying to mitigate its costs and the fewer inmates sent to other counties the less money the state has to pay out.
“I don’t see changes in our budget that would continue to allow for that,” Whipker said of sending more state inmates to county jails.
Rodden said he is aware that the state is trying to limit the prisoners it sends to other facilities, but the amount of prisoners the state has still overwhelms the system and overcrowding is a problem that may persist.
“It’s up in the air,” he said of receiving more state inmates.
He added that the state is cutting back at facilities that do not offer programs for prisoners, where Clark County does so, and even if the state limits the number of prisoners, Rodden may seek to house federal inmates in the county facility.
JOB TO MOVE?
One area that would likely be cut should the work release program be eliminated is payroll.
It is likely many of the jobs of community corrections — which are funded by the state grant — will go with the elimination of the program.
Rodden said that he would look to hire additional staff from the community corrections workers, giving them the first opportunity at the jobs — which would be part of the county payroll — but the amount of workers needed would be about nine employees.
The Clark County Community Corrections at its current staffing levels includes eight part-time and 22 full-time employees.
“I need the Sheriff to run our program,” Mason said. “I need to work with him, [but] what you’re going to lose to gain that $35, it just doesn’t add up.”
SO YOU KNOW
Total savings to the county and Indiana Department of Correction (instead of housing work-release inmates in county/state jail):
• County: $811,615
• IDOC: $1,219,741
• Amount collected from successful clients of work-release: $277,622
• Amount collected from unsuccessful clients of work-release: $77,253
• Amount paid per day by work-release inmates: $15.50
• Amount paid per day by state to house state prisoners: $35
Note: Figures from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2009
