Board questions housing state prisoners
There are 11 Fayette County inmates sitting in neighboring Greene County because the prison is too overcrowded to hold any more. The Fayette County Prison is also housing – any paying for – 18 inmates that are technically state prisoners.
On Wednesday, during a prison board meeting, board members questioned what could be done to remedy that situation.
Board chairman Sheriff Gary D. Brownfield said his office is prepared to shuttle the inmates to a state facility, but the State Correctional Institution at Greene does not have the room to take them. While the county houses the state inmates, they also incur the cost of having them because there is no legislation in place that the county gets a reimbursement.
“This happens a lot. We’re warehousing them while we’re paying other people to house our prisoners,” Brownfield said.
Warden Larry Medlock said that the prison the state inmates are to be transferred to is full, causing problems. He also said the county housing state inmates is a recurring problem.
Board member Judge John F. Wagner Jr. said he felt it was “inexcusable” for the county to have to pay for state inmates while county inmates are being sent out of county.
He told controller Mark Roberts, also a board member, that maybe he should talk to his father, Rep. Larry Roberts (D-South Union).
“Maybe over Thanksgiving you can suggest to your father that he introduce legislation to reimburse the county,” Wagner said.
Roberts said that the county has spent about $190,000 on cell rentals through August. With a budget of $350,000 for the year, Roberts said the prison is well within its spending limit.
Medlock said that as of the Wednesday meeting, the prison had 276 inmates. He said the prison is averaging 23 more inmates per day than in 2004.
The board also discussed ways to curtail overtime pay at the prison. Roberts said so far this year, the prison has paid out $100,000 in overtime. Medlock said that amount was largely due to an unusually high number of hospital trips for inmates, where a guard is required to stay with the prisoner.
He said there were 85 this year, and six of those had to stay in the hospital for one week or longer, necessitating guards to stay as well.
Roberts suggested staffing each shift at the prison with additional full time guards to offset the cost of overtime in the event that a scheduled guard calls off or has to accompany an inmate to the hospital.
Board member Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites said he felt the solution was the hire more part-time guards to fill in the gaps