County commissioners agreed last week to give the Franklin County sheriff’s department an additional 50 thousand dollars to help cover inmate medical expenses.
The sheriff’s department budgeted 110 thousand dollars this year to cover prisoner medical costs, but it turns out that was not enough. Shortfalls in the budget for inmate medical expenses happen relatively often; the last time was 2005.
When the sheriff creates his budget every year, the best he can do is estimate how much will be needed to cover inmate medical expenses, but all it takes is one chronically ill inmate to nullify those estimates. The additional 50 thousand dollars is coming from the county’s fine and forfeiture fund.
County Commissioner Pinki Jackel asked that the county now do a cost benefit analysis on an ongoing program that allows the state to pay Franklin county to house about 40 state prisoners at the local jail. The county is paid more than 400,000 dollars a year from the contract – but Commissioner Jackel said she wants to see if the county is actually making money from the deal or spending more than it brings in.
Miss Jackel called the inmate health care shortfall a bad situation because we have a lot of people in Franklin County who don’t get health care yet the county is spending an additional 50 thousand dollars for prisoners.
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