CARROLLTON — Cuts in the number of inmates being sent to the Carroll Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility have created a crisis in funding for the jail.
In a special called meeting of the Carroll Board of Supervisors Wednesday, board members came to a reckoning that the regional jail’s budget must be cut. They voted unanimously to amend the jail’s budget to reflect a 20 percent cut for the next fiscal year.
The problem is to try to figure out how to cut while keeping inmates safe and meeting all state and federal guidelines.
In the past, the CMRCF had based its budget on keeping an average of 270 state inmates, whose daily board was paid by Mississippi Department of Corrections at $20 per person. That number was sufficient to take care of the jail’s needs and pay for three Carroll County deputies.
On Wednesday, board Vice President Terry Herbert said the county had budgeted for the jail based on 270 state in-mates but has received a letter saying the number is going to be around 224.
“The best answer is to budget for 80 percent and take a look at it each month to see if it needs to be amended up or down. We can’t keep amending down after the money is spent,” Herbert said.
Tony Green of North Central Planning and Development District, who assists the board in creating its budget, said the jail budget needs to be cut by about $500,000 — from $2,930,877 to $2,431,542 — in order to make the budget work.
Green said the biggest expenditure is in personal services, which includes salaries and “fringes” such as retirement and Social Security match. “A $30,000 salary costs $42,000,” Green said.
Herbert said the board can only set the budget according to revenues. “It’s not our job to tell you where to cut,” he said to Sheriff Jerry Carver and Warden Arthur Smith.
Herbert also discussed with Carver and Smith the current situation with work inmates, who are no longer being supported by state payments. Smith told the board he has talked with MDOC officials, but they seem unsure of whether counties can keep those inmates and pay for their board at the jail.
“I think we should just tell them to come get them before we get further in the hole,” Carver said.
Herbert disagreed, telling Carver, “We budgeted money to pay for them.”
Board attorney Kevin Horan said the county is trying to do what it has been instructed to do by the MDOC commissioner, Marshall Fisher.
“The commissioner said y’all are responsible,” Horan said.
Fisher has stated publicly that counties could continue to use inmates who have been approved for work as long as they pay the jail for their care. However, other MDOC officials do not seem to be clear on those instructions, Smith said.
“They sent me an email that said cease all billing until we clear legality” of counties paying for work inmates, he said.
“I had conversations with Compton and explained we are just charging for housing expense and care,” Smith said.
Herbert said overtime is a serious problem with finances at the jail. “Overtime is killing us. I know the reason. We’re trying to get ready for the American Corrections Association accreditation.”
Carver told the board that the county’s DUI deputy, Rob Banks, has resigned effective Sept. 30. “We’ve found money in the sheriff’s budget for the others,” he said.
“If we have to lay anyone off, we’re going to have to pay unemployment, so you won’t see the savings you think. We have two now on workmen’s comp,” Carver said.
Smith said he had to purchase new cameras because new federal guidelines say jail employees must be able to see what’s going on in all zones. “We have a whole different audit next year,” he said.
In response to Herbert’s remarks that the jail has been spending “like 270 (inmates) when we have 242,” Carver asked where there is unnecessary spending at the jail. Beat 4 Supervisor Claude Fluker said he has been looking at the jail’s line-item expenditures and has found places where spending is unnecessary.
“I can talk to you about that,” Fluker said. “I can show you some things that have been overspent.”
“We’ll have a meeting after the meeting,” Carver replied.
