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county jail gets relief
Fairfax County prison officials had a simple message for Gov. Tim Kaine: make sure local prisons aren't overcrowded before renting space to house the inmates from other overcrowded states.“The feeling is, 'Hey, take care of us first, and then, if you still have space, then that's fine'” to rent space to the highest bidder, said Maj. James Whitley, division commander with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
Kaine recently rescinded a plan that would house 1,000 out-of-state inmates in Virginia prisons to accommodate a $12 million shortfall in the state Department of Corrections budget.
It seems to happen with bothersome regularity – the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center gets overcrowded with inmates who were supposed to be transferred to a state prison after 60 days. Then county officials make complaints, ruffle the feathers of state officials and the detention center is once again relieved of inmates who are “out of compliance,” or past the 60 day mark.
In a June 17 letter to the Virginia Sheriff's Association, Kaine wrote that until recently “just over 1,800 out of compliance state inmates were being held in jails,” and that “I have instructed DOC to take all feasible steps, without creating unsafe conditions, to continue to reduce the number of out of compliance state inmates in local and regional jails.”
Despite Kaine's decision, however, a contentious, long-time contract to house nearly 300 Wyoming inmates will continue to be on the books, said Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor.
At the beginning of June, there were 73 inmates out of compliance at the detention center, according to figures released by the county.
As an answer to pleas from the county sheriff's office to the state DOC, only five or so of those inmates are left now.
“We've had issues where it's gotten over 200 [inmates out of compliance] in some cases. What's happened in the past, when we shine a light on a problem, the DOC gets inmates out of there,” Whitley said.
“This has been a chronic problem going back to early 1980s,” said County Sheriff Stan Barry.
“For the DOC, it's all about the bottom line,” Barry said, concluding that there's “no real incentive for the state to take our prisoners because they'd make a great deal of money on out-of-state prisoners,” while paying a little money to house local inmates, since those jurisdictions pay for the majority of living expenses for its prisoners.
It costs the county $125 a day to house an inmate, $14 of which is funded by the state, Barry said.
Now that the number of inmates is again receding, “It's my hope the governor's office monitors the problem and that hopefully this won't happen again,” Barry said.
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