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Hernando Today

County withholds $422K from jail bill

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: July 3, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - The operators of the Hernando County Jail are questioning the right of the county to withhold money it contends belongs to them.
Purchasing Director James Gantt sent Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) a letter saying the county will withhold $421,969 from its April billing because he believes the operator did not sufficiently compensate the county for helping add 104 new beds at the jail.
Gantt said he is merely enforcing the provisions of the contract.
But CCA doesn't see it that way.
Natasha Metcalf, CCA's vice president for customer contracts, fired off a letter last week to Gantt, saying the county is in default of its contract and asking him to "immediately release the withheld funds."
As of Thursday, the county has not backed down.
CCA spokesman Steve Owen declined to comment further until the county issues a response to its letter.
In the past, CCA and the county have been able to work out contractual concerns and Owen said he is hopeful this latest problem will be resolved.
Gantt said the county is only enforcing the provisions of the contract that directed CCA to reimburse it for expanding bed capacity. The money withheld will help offset the cost of running the jail.
There was an amendment to the jail contract in 2007 that allowed CCA to add an additional 104 permanent beds to house additional prisoners.
The county allowed them to do that with the proviso the county would share the revenue received from those beds. The county would receive 30 percent and CCA 70 percent, regardless of whether the needs were occupied by county or noncounty inmates.
"We have been in discussion with them since that was implemented on how that will be done but haven't received the revenue that we anticipated," Gantt said. "So we have waited and waited and waited and finally we made some assumptions on our own and have told CCA this is how much they owe us."
Gantt said "we intend to go after that revenue on a continuing basis."
In all, Gantt said CCA only paid $241,000 of the $663,000 owed, leaving the $422,000 deficit.
In 2006, the county's actual expense for operating the jail (which includes the CCA contract, medical expenses and other costs) was $9.9 million.
In 2007, the expense was $11.9 million from the general fund. In 2008, it rose to $12.3 million.
This current year is incomplete, so the actual expenses are not yet known. However, the county has budgeted $13.3 million for the jail in 2009.
The estimated budget for 2010 is $13.1 million, but the county is trying to shave off at least $500,000 from that figure.
With the county scrambling to balance its budget, commissioners have already asked CCA to forego its 4 percent annual adjustment built into its contract.
CCA charges $57.18 per day for each inmate. If the 4 percent adjustment is passed, that goes up to $59.46 per day.
The number of inmates at the jail has risen from an average 220 per month in 1999-2000 to the current 550 to 600 per day, according to Gantt.
Probation violators, who have already been sentenced and awaiting adjudication, make up 50 percent of that population, Gantt said.
Because it takes about 30 days to cycle these violators through the jail, the county could end up seeing its per diem inmate cost rise from $1,715 a month to $1,783 should the 4 percent adjustment go into effect.
That's why the county is making a strong push to bring in more out-of-county inmates, including federal inmates sent there by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.
The county would split $55.96 for those prisoners with CCA with Hernando County getting either 15 or 30 percent depending on the population of the non-county inmates and bed availability.
The county gets 30 percent of $55.96 if there are 104 beds occupied by out-of-county inmates, including ICE detainees. Anything exceeding 104 beds, the county gets 15 percent, according to Barbara Fisher, the county's corrections program coordinator.
The jail has a total of 756 beds.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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