Lowndes County needs to raise the rate it charges to house city prisoners, and county officials have suggested setting up a meeting with Columbus mayor and city council to talk about it.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins told the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday that he is working on a new agreement with the city to increase the daily charge for housing prisoners.
The city of Columbus does not have its own jail. The Lowndes County Adult Detention Center handles all of the Columbus Police Department’s arrests.
The jail can house up to 288 inmates, and the number of city inmates fluctuates, Hawkins said.
“Once they’re bound over by the grand jury, if it’s a felony, they become county inmates,” Hawkins said.
The county currently charges the city $25 per day per inmate, versus the $65 per day it receives for state inmates.
“We have a contract with our food vendor, and so far the cost hasn’t gone up,” Hawkins said. “But the contract expires at the end of the year, and they’ve already told us we can expect an increase in cost because the cost on their side has gone up.”
That $25 per day figure has been in place since 1996, Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston said.
The increased charge will be phased in over three years, Hairston said.
“We’re looking at going up $10 the first year, to $35,” he said. “Then we’re looking at going up $5 a day next year, and $5 a day the year after that, to a total of $45. The cost to house a prisoner is going up, and we feel like this nominal rate is something we just have to do.”
That price hike had come up Tuesday night at the Columbus City Council’s public budget meeting during a discussion of Columbus Police Department and Crime Lab’s budgets. Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Taylor Stewart suggested that, if the price per prisoner went up, the city should ask the Lowndes County Narcotics Task Force to start paying for drug testing.
The city crime lab currently tests seized drugs for free as part of the interlocal agreement between the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and CPD that founded the metro task force.
Wednesday District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks suggested getting everyone to sit down and talk to one another before the tension got out of hand.
“Everybody thinks that the county has a bottomless pit, but we’ve got to budget our money like everyone else,” Brooks said. “My thing is there needs to be, right away, a conversation with City Hall that these are some joint projects that we need to maintain. When we come back (to meet Tuesday) let’s think about putting together a committee to have a conversation.”
Hairston said he would contact Mayor Keith Gaskin and try to put something together.
Fleet management
The county is also looking to rebid the sheriff’s department’s fleet management plan.
Earlier this year the supervisors approved a contract with Enterprise Fleet Management, which would lease cars to the sheriff’s office, rotating them out every few years. Supply chain issues have gummed up the works, Hawkins said, because new 2022 vehicles aren’t on the market.
“Supply chain issues have limited the number of vehicles that the manufacturers are producing,” he said.
The county is asking for bids for 2023 year model vehicles this time in the hopes of getting its foot in the door.
“We want to get the bidding process in place and out of the way so we can go ahead and buy vehicles for 2023,” he said. “We want to be ready to go when the window of opportunity opens.”
The department is looking at leasing some vehicles, but also buying some new ones if it can, Hawkins said.
“We’re trying to hedge our bets,” he said.
The new bids will be opened Sept. 27.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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