Jasper County plans to charge cities for housing inmates

KJAS - by Steve Stewart - The Jasper County Commissioners Court met in a special session on Tuesday morning and adopted a new policy of charging the municipalities of Jasper and Kirbyville $40.00 per day for each inmate that they bring to the county jail.

County Judge Mark Allen says the policy will go into effect on November 1st, and he pointed out that the $40.00 per day charge would begin when the inmate is booked in, and would last until the district attorney's office accepts the charges on the incarcerated suspect.

The news has not set well with police chiefs Todd Hunter in Jasper, and Jeff Clopp in Kirbyville. Both men said on Tuesday that they were blindsided, and they were very upset that there was no dialogue between them and the sheriff's department before the decision was made. Hunter and Clopp also expressed dismay that they were not made aware that the meeting would take place.

Judge Allen said the issue has been under research since January, and the plan implemented in Jasper County is modeled after the plan already in place in Jefferson County where municipalities pay $52.00 per day, per inmate.

Allen also explained that the plan is designed to offset costs for the jail. However, that argument did not bode well with Chief Clopp who pointed out that the citizens of Kirbyville already pay dual taxes, to both the city, and to the county. Clopp said his department cannot afford it at all, and he was worried that the plan could effectively shut down the Kirbyville Police Department in a very short time.

Chief Hunter echoed those concerns and said that he anticipates a drastic impact on city services.

Hunter said the Jasper Police Department currently averages 105 arrests per month, and of those, an average of 60% to 65% are for class B offenses and above, which means those suspects go straight to the county jail.

The estimate is that the City of Jasper could feasibly be paying an average of $72,000.00 per month to house inmates.

Jasper Mayor Mike Lout said that he is very surprised by the decision, and also expressed his frustration that the City of Jasper had no knowledge of the plan, and especially since it came right after Jasper had their budget in place.

Lout said the city will most likely have to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way to fit the cost into their budget.