Legislators and county commission talk about the cost of jail bill

Feb. 25—FAIRMONT — A freshman lawmaker from Marion County is raising concerns about the fees the county pays to incarcerate inmates in the state's regional jail.

Del. Phil Mallow, R-Marion, took to Facebook recently about the $200,000 a month — $1.2 million a year — Marion County pays the state to house inmates arrested by the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Mallow described the fees as an "inefficient expenditure" and said, "We must find a solution."

"Every arrest in Marion County, regardless of the infraction (shoplifting, DUI with no accident, etc.) may result in a trip to the regional jail for the individuals arrested and the beginning of a new 'tab' for our county," Mallow posted.

Marion County Sheriff Jimmy Riffle said sometimes those costs are driven upwards when someone is arrested and does not have the means to post bail or bond, which can result in several weeks or months that someone is awaiting trial while incarcerated.

Riffle said if the charge is not violent, and certain criteria can be met, then it's possible people can be put on home confinement instead of being incarcerated while awaiting trial.

"To be on home confinement there is a cost involved that is paid by the participant," said Riffle.

He said jail costs for daily incarceration at the regional jail is around $48. If someone is on home confinement the cost to the person is around $300 a month — roughly $10 a day.

"If you look at the cost basis of someone being incarcerated in the regional jail for 30 days at $48 a day versus being on home confinement which is less restrictive but it also is a very limited mobility," said Riffle.

Any violent or serious crime would not be eligible for home confinement but some lesser offenses could easily qualify for home confinement monitoring versus incarceration.

"I think it is a viable option in a lot of cases, not in every case, it also would limit the amount of time deputies or transport officers are spending taking people to the regional jail," said Riffle.

The round trip is three hours to Doddridge County, to which Riffle said, sometimes overtime costs must be paid to deputies making the trip and a deputy is out of service while transporting the inmate.

Marion County Commission President Randy Elliott said those who commit crime either have to be incarcerated or rehabilitated somehow. Elliott said, in the past, the commission has worked with judges to agree to a day report program instead of sending offenders outside of the county.

"Our biggest expense in our budget is our jail bill. It's $200,000 a month," said Elliott.

Elliott said it's become a problem, and a very big expense to the county taxpayers. He said the commission has looked for different alternatives to saving money there.

"When I started, we had nobody on home confinement. We have 70 to 80 people on it [now]," said Elliott.

Home confinement has saved the county $1 millions a year, he said. Day report, which Elliott said, is mostly comprised of younger people with minor offenses, allows for offenders to be drug tested, educated and rehabilitated.

"It not only saves us money, which is important, but it keeps them out of jail where they become worse," said Elliott.

Still, there is a high number of those who become incarcerated. Elliott said he wasn't sure why that was, whether it was the pandemic-related economic downturn or some other reason, but many people are still being arrested and going to jail.

"We're doing all we can. We've stepped up to the plate as a commission to support these programs," said Elliott.

Elliott said House Bill 2164 states if an inmate is arrested by municipal police in a city that participates in municipal home rule and levies a local sales tax, the municipality must pay the first seven days of the jail bill. However, this doesn't apply for those arrested by a county sheriff, outside of a municipality.

Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said when he worked in the governor's office he worked on several initiatives related to criminal justice reform and tried to reduce the number of individuals who were not dangers to society from being incarcerated.

"I think that is good policy. We have an incarceration problem in West Virginia that has also taken a whole amount of budgetary funds from Marion County that could be spent on roads or other programs that help our citizens," said Garcia.

He said right now, there's nothing he's seen that is coming up in legislature that's aimed at trying to reduce those costs by making smart decisions on who will be incarcerated.

"We've spoken with Sheriff Riffle about using home incarceration in lieu of the regional jails, and I think that is a good idea, that we can save money, and they can effectively supervise individuals who are again less dangerous to society," said Garcia.

State Sen. Mike Caputo, D-13, said regional jail cost concerns have been floating around in the legislature for a while now. He said the legislature is always trying to find ways to alleviate those costs incurred by counties.

"I just don't see the need to always incarcerate nonviolent offenses and we need to look at more home confinement, more day-report things, more probation. Of course, we don't want to put anybody out on the street who could be dangerous to society," he said.

Caputo said he believes there is a lot of room to look at different offenses that might merit jail time and lower it to something like public service of home confinement.

"You have to keep in mind our jails are overcrowded as we speak. Conditions aren't what they should be for those in those institutions," said Caputo.

Reach Sarah Marino at 304-367-2549