Jailer Bill Jenkins gave the detention center report at the meeting, which told of 127 inmates currently in the jail with 35 of those being state inmates. The state pays $30 a day to house a state inmate in Logan County whereas the county has to pay the total cost of $34 a day to house its own inmates.
Jenkins began his report talking about staph infections and how some of the inmates were coming into the jail with the infection. They were doing all they could to control the ailment to keep it from spreading.
When the treasurer gave her report, she included a budget transfer of $30,000 to the jail. Carter questioned the transfer, asking if it was in the budget. The county’s treasurer said no that the jail was over budget in the cash transfers from occupational tax to the jail, but said the jail was not over the budget as a whole.
Carter was very distressed about the overage and began asking Jenkinsseveral questions about why the jail was over budget in this line item.
Jenkins – who is an elected official – explained to Carter that he didn’t put anyone in the jail and couldn’t let anyone out of it. He said he maintained to many none-paying inmates and that the jail was not a revenue building facility.
Magistrate Jo Orange entered the conversation, questioning why more money was being spent on the same amount of inmates. She said she couldn’t tell where anything had changed very much.
Magistrate Thomas Bouldin said he remembers a fluctuation in state inmate population which could be the cause of the increase.
Jenkins told the court that the jail ranges between 25 to 38 state inmates and that makes a difference in the revenue of the jail.
Jenkins also said there were a lot of expenses he had no control over such as the jail’s payment of $330,000, medical costs of $200,000, salaries and benefits of $600,000 and utilities of $200,000.
Carter told Jenkins he did have control over the other spending at the jail. Jenkins reminded Carter that his total budget wasn’t over.
County Attorney Tom Noe jumped into the heated conversation saying that nothing productive was coming from the discussion and if the court wanted to look into the jail’s spending they needed to form a committee to do so, but that “haranguing” Bill was wasting time and being unproductive.
Carter came back at Noe saying it was his job to protect the taxpayer’s money and he was going to ask questions. Noe told Carter that he had asked them already to which Carter replied, “They didn’t suffice.”
Jenkins told Carter he felt the problem didn’t lie with the jail but with him.
“If my name is on it you attack it.” Jenkins said to Carter, adding that when he ran the recycling center in the past, Carter was always on the center and him and then when he went off of recycling Carter never talked about it again.
Judge Executive Logan Chick called for order and both Carter and Jenkins stopped their conversation.
Magistrate Harold Prince made a motion to accept the transfer of $30,000 to the jail with Magistrate Curtis Watkins seconding the motion. Magistrates Jo Orange and Carter voted against the transfer.
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