93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
(Missourinet) A House budget committee hearing on Tuesday at the state Capitol discussed Missouri’s $35 million debt to counties for housing and transporting inmates who eventually go to state prison.
Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott of southwest Missouri says the state owes his county $2.9 million. He tells the committee he has 953 inmates in his jail, compared to less than 200 about 30 years ago.
“As the state inmate population has gone down, where do you think they fill? They fill up in the county jails,” Arnott says. “We’ve shifted the burden from the state of Missouri to the local taxpayers in each county to handle.”
A Department of Corrections budget official says it is about nine months behind in paying for county jail housing costs because it only gets $10 million each quarter to pay down the debt.
