This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Dr. Michael Sanera, John Locke Foundation Director of Research and Local Government Studies.
RALEIGH — Jails are one of the most important core functions of county government, but many North Carolina jails are in trouble. The state health department recently closed the Yadkin County jail due to unsanitary conditions. Many others, including the Cumberland County jail, are overcrowded.
In these hard economic times, county commissions struggle with finding money to expand or build new jails. Cumberland County commissioners recently addressed their jail’s overcrowding problem with a four-hour jail summit meeting.
To their credit, the commissioners, under the leadership of chairman Billy King, sought diverse perspectives on how to increase jail capacity. I was happy to participate in this summit meeting along with the county sheriff, county attorney, a representative from the National Institute of Corrections, the N.C. secretary of correction, and a Duke University professor.
The audience for the summit contained additional expertise including the Cumberland County manager, Fayetteville city manager, Fayetteville police chief, a superior court judge, and employees of many of the ancillary agencies that deal with the accused, such as the probation department.
Not a bad way to gather solutions to a seemingly intractable problem. While much of the discussion adhered to predictable options, I presented innovative, lesser known, and lower-cost alternatives to address county jail capacity problems.
First, more counties should investigate potential cost savings from building and operating jails with neighboring counties. Currently three consolidated jails exist in North Carolina: the Burke/Catawba jail, the Bertie/Martin jail, and the Albemarle jail that serves Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Camden counties.
In these cases, the sheriffs have given up direct supervision of their jails. An administrator is hired and supervised by an independent board. The Burke/Catawba jail is governed by a board comprising the two sheriffs and two county managers.
Counties with a consolidated jail also agree to joint funding. For example, costs of the Bertie/Martin jail are divided, with Bertie paying 44 percent and Martin paying 56 percent of the costs.
Another cost-saving possibility is for a county to contract with neighboring counties to provide incarceration of their inmates. When the state health department closed its jail, Yadkin transported its inmates to jails in Forsyth, Davie, and Watauga counties and paid those counties $45 to $62 per day.
In other states, counties build jails larger than they need and then rent the extra beds to other counties and even the federal government.
This suggests the opportunity for an entrepreneurial North Carolina county to build a jail larger than necessary and contract with neighboring counties to house their inmates. The receiving county benefits with a new revenue stream. The county sending the inmates does not face the expense of building a new jail. Isabella County, Michigan, partially financed its new jail by leasing inmate space to other counties.
Of course, a jail not located at a county courthouse increases transportation costs. Deputies must transport inmates to and from their court appearances. Current state law allows use of remote video conferencing for minor court appearances such as bail hearings.
Additionally, the legislature authorized a pilot program to test the expansion of this practice to more significant court appearances such as guilty pleas and sentencing. Three counties are participating in the pilot program conducted by the Rural Courts Commission. Its report is due in the near future.
Assuming successful results, the General Assembly could approve legislation to expand this practice statewide. Thus, transportation costs could be reduced dramatically, and many more counties could save tax money by consolidating their jails.
Finally, North Carolina and several other states contract with private firms to operate state prisons. Correction Corporation of America, the country’s largest provider of private prisons, has 85,000 beds in 60 facilities across the country. A recent Vanderbilt University study showed that between 1999 and 2004 growth in the cost of housing prisoners was slower in private prisons. Other studies document savings of 10 to 15 percent.
Unfortunately, North Carolina faces an inconsistency. The state can contract with private firms to operate state prisons, but it does not allow counties to gain the savings by contracting for jails.
CCA operates county jails in Florida, Tennessee, and Indiana. County taxpayers could benefit from a change in the law to permit counties to contract for jail services. Until then, the benefits of jail consolidation offer some hope of providing this essential public safety function at lower costs.