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Estimated numbers push new county jail farther away


Walworth County Commissioners once again discussed a new jail project, but estimated numbers and costs brought concern for the project.
Commissioners Marion Schlomer and Kevin Holgard opened the discussion with estimated costs and prisoner numbers for the six counties that are currently in the planning process. Schlomer worked with the numbers of days served and the estimated cost of housing a prisoner and estimated revenues of those days served. He said that these numbers are not totally accurate because the some of the numbers are estimates. He didn’t have all accurate data to work with.
He estimated that including all operating costs of housing an inmate it would cost $306 per day to house a prisoner in the new jail. This is the closet estimate based on the $1.2 annual operating cost for the current jail. He said the county receives anywhere from $187 to $192 per day for housing prisoners.
Schlomer said the contention that this new jail would be a money maker is just false.
He said based on the number of prisoners held at the jail over the last five years, Campbell County is responsible of 3.8% of the prisoners held during that period; Corson 11.6%; McPherson 2.4%; Potter 2.6%; Sioux (North Dakota) 4.6%; and Walworth County 74.5% of the housing costs. Dewey County is no longer interested in participating in the new project.
Schlomer divided these percentages into the operating costs, the cost of housing Campbell County prisoners is $54,768; Corson $169,732; McPherson $35,556; Potter $38,429; Sioux $66,524; and Walworth $1.68 million.
“They (county officials) want us to put up the new jail and have us pay for it,” he said. “We are not making any money on this.”
Schlomer said revenues are based on 12 U.S. Marshal inmates per day, but he is uncomfortable basing a project on revenue that is not steady. He said Corson County’s budget for housing prisoners is about $80,000 and he wondered if they would willing to up that budget by nearly $100,000 to keep bringing prisoners to Walworth County.
He said his biggest concern is that county officials will back out of contracts if they discover the costs will be too high for their budgets.
“If any other of these back out do you think it is worth proceeding with this?” asked Holgard. “If Corson County backs out with that budget, is it worth proceeding or are we beating a dead horse?’
The jail committee will have another meeting on Friday, June 29, at which committee members will review Schlomer’s estimates.

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