March 28, 2024

Sheriff’s office raises inmate fees as capacity grows

Out-of-county inmates increase, staff await jail pod construction

Staff members at the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office are a bit busy these days.

In addition to the Jasper County Jail housing inmates from Warren County until the region is finished constructing its new penitentiary, the local sheriff’s office is receiving inquiries from other districts for permission to accommodate their inmates.

Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty said the jail has been regularly storing 60 to 70 inmates, although it changes every day, sometimes up to two or three times a day. Typically, about 50 percent of the population booked at the jail are Jasper County inmates. During an Oct. 23 board of supervisors meeting, Halferty said Warren County is supplying 25 to 30 inmates a day. As of Thursday morning, six to eight inmates housed in Jasper County Jail were sent from Polk County.

With so many people to take care of, correctional officers like Derick Ford have their hands full monitoring the population, transporting inmates to the courthouse, feeding them, facilitating outside mental health and substance abuse services and coordinating nurse visits, among other duties. Day-to-day operations at the county jail can be tough to manage.

“There’s not a lot of down time,” Ford said.

An influx of inmates from at least three counties means it takes “twice as long” to distribute medications and three-a-day meals to inmates, Halferty said.

Not to mention the costs procured by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office for multiple laundry cycles, utility uses and expenses like toiletries. Halferty said this was one of the reasons he approached the Jasper County Board of Supervisors Oct. 23 to raise the fee for housing inmates from other jurisdictions from $45 per day to $55 per day.

Halferty told the supervisors, “As you know, we’ve been holding out-of-county inmates for two to three years.  We recently did an assessment of average costs or charge per day of facilities — both smaller than us and larger than us — and based upon that information I’m proposing we raise our costs.”

The approved resolution, signed by board of supervisors chairperson Doug Cupples, claimed the sheriff’s office’s “utility, maintenance, food and equipment costs have increased due to the number of inmates being housed.” The changed rate of $55 now aligns with a current average cost for inmates with several Iowa Counties, which is about $55 to $60 per day, according to the resolution proposal.

Upon the Jasper County Supervisors’ approval of the sheriff’s office proposal, a secondary fee change was also included in the agreement for out-of-county inmates “who exhibit threatening or violent behavior, past or present.” Those individuals who demonstrate this type of attitude increase the daily rate and often need to be segregated from the general populace.

“It’s very common now for facilities to add an additional cost if we have one of those types of inmates, so we’re proposing a $75-a-day fee per inmate,” Halferty said at the Oct. 23 supervisors meeting.

Warren County is, however, exempt from the board-approved changes since the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office is still under contract with the district to house singular inmates for $45 a day, although Halferty said it is possible that amount may increase to the updated price at some point.

Meanwhile, a new jail pod is currently under construction. Left unfinished when the jail was first built, Halferty said the time has come for the staff to utilize the empty space to house another eight or 10 inmates.

The dorm-style pod still has a long way to go before it is completely finished. Currently resembling an empty concrete room with a tall ceiling and thin windows, the pod will differ from the jail’s other models, which include a mezzanine, among other things. Once the pod is equipped with the stainless steel toilet-sink combos, bunk beds, tables, visitation system, drop ceiling and other trim, staff may then begin to fill the vessel.

“With us bringing inmates in from other counties, the hope is that we could get, say somebody that’s just doing time — they’ve been sentenced to do so many days and they aren’t maybe a high risk or in for a violent crime — we can put ‘em in here, they can do their time,” Halferty said. “And then we can get them out of here.”

Staff workload, he added, will increase slightly. But the construction of the jail pod, if anything, gives the Jasper County Jail staff options when isolating individuals from the greater population in the remaining pods.

Often, the personnel are forced to sequester inmates that do not get along, get into a fight, are co-defendants or have been placed in jail for committing a sex offense or homicide. Those inmates tend to get placed in a different pod altogether, like A-pod.

“Sometimes we have to put people in A-pod because we don’t have any place else to put them,” Halferty said. “So what this does is it gives us another option, as a dorm, to put people in here for any of those reasons.”

From a business standpoint, an influx of inmates is good for the sheriff’s office since it brings in a steady stream of revenue. On the other hand, the jail does not want to be completely packed full of inmates.

“We have to keep a few beds open for our own county, but I also am respectful of the staff (being) busy,” Halferty said. “…If you have open beds and there’s an opportunity to bring revenue in, we should do it. It’s that balance of how many do we bring in.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com