County prisoner boarding revenue surging again

The number of state and federal prisoners at the Ozaukee County Jail has generated a level of revenue in recent months not seen in almost three years.

But Sheriff Christy Knowles said last week she may have to cut back on the boarding program because of an increasing demand for space by local inmates.

“As our local population increases, we’re going to have to push some of those (boarders) out,” she told members of the county Public Safety Committee.

Currently, she said, there are 38 so-called boarders at the jail from the state Department of Corrections and the U.S. Marshal’s Service, which pay the county to put up their prisoners to await trial or transport to other facilities.

“My goal is 30,” she said.

In April, revenue to the county was about $59,000, the highest amount since August 2021, according to figures supplied to the committee by Knowles. That’s up from zero in September 2023 and about $25,000 in December after the boarding program was revived at the end of last year.

For several years, the county earned as much as $85,000 a month for boarding state and federal inmates.

That abruptly stopped, however, in late 2021 as the state cut back on using local jails to house their inmates and federal inmates were transferred to Illinois facilities.

From January 2019 through February 2020, the average number of state inmates housed per day at the Ozaukee County Jail was about 35.

Beginning in March 2020, that number spiked to 50 or more, out of a total jail population of less than 180 as the state opted to keep inmates in place due to concerns over Covid-19.

In 2020, county officials created a budget line item that commits excess revenue from the jail boarding program to capital projects at the jail and Sheriff’s Office. Potential revenue from the jail boarding program is not insignificant as the Sheriff’s Office makes up about two-thirds of the county’s entire budget.

The proposed 2024 budget, for instance, calls for a total tax levy of $22.2 million, $15.25 million of which supports the Sheriff’s Office.

Because the jail-boarding program is not a guaranteed source of revenue, and can be ended by the state with 30 days notice, the money isn’t considered a safe source of operating funds.

That’s what happened in 2013, when the Ozaukee County Jail housed federal prisoners. That year, the county earned about $1.7 million housing more than 80 federal and state prisoners each month.

That ended when President Barack Obama’s administration transferred federal prisoners to the president’s home state of Illinois after a new federal facility was built there.

Knowles said the current number of inmates in the jail, including state and federal boarders, totaled 191. The jail has a total capacity of 236 inmates.

“I don’t see us getting there (to capacity),” she said. “But I see us backing off on boarders.”

The number of local inmates dipped near the end of last year, but has risen again in recent months to an average of about 150 per day, about the same as last summer when there were no boarders, according to Knowles’ figures.

The issue is even more acute when it comes to women inmates, she said, because of the need for female deputies in the jail and individual holding cells for female inmates who have special needs or who require special treatment, such as those with mental health issues.

Knowles reiterated to the committee that an increasing number of inmates have mental issues, are autistic or are elderly and have special needs due to their age, and conditions like dementia, which often results in them being belligerent or even violent.

“When I started in the jail, we didn’t have this extreme behavior,” she said.

She said she’s hopeful things will improve as the jail will have its first full-time mental health specialist on site in June.

She also said the Sheriff’s Office is in the process of bolstering its program for inmates being released with the help of several nonprofit organizations. That includes addressing mental health issues, drug dependency and improving job skills, among other things, she said.

Officials say nearly two-thirds of Ozaukee County jail inmates have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, and they often have no plan for what to do or how to live once they are released.

She also pointed to a new “co-responder” program in which a social worker accompanies a sheriff’s deputy who has received mental health training in responding to mental health crisis situations.

Knowles said she intends to make the program proactive, in which her office and the county’s Human Services Department can identify “frequent fliers,” those who have had run-ins with the law before, and acquaint them with available services before another crisis situation erupts.