Jail’s prisoner boarding program rakes in the revenue

The number of state and federal prisoners being housed at the Ozaukee County Jail continues to surge, swelling the balance of funds available to make capital improvements at the jail.

To that end, the county’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously on Tuesday to spend $223,000 on various projects, including $34,000 to upgrade the jail’s medical facilities, $22,000 for a 30-gallon tilting skillet for the jail kitchen and $53,500 for a contactless vital signs monitoring system.

Revenue paid to the county by the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the state Department of Corrections has grown from almost zero in September 2023 to more than $90,000 a month this past June, July and August.

The Sheriff’s Office put away $500,000  last year into a fund to pay for one-time capital or special projects.

Officials expect another $500,000 to be placed in the fund in January 2026, bringing the total to about $750,000 after the dollars approved Tuesday are spent.

Undersheriff Marshall Hermann told the committee on Tuesday that the average number of jail inmates is currently about 210, with 29 of them federal prisoners and seven from the state.

The jail has a total capacity of 236 inmates.

Those numbers have been roughly consistent going back to September 2024, according to data supplied by the Sheriff’s Office.

“That’s a little bit higher than what we like,” Hermann said.

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 $150,000 of boarding revenue toward Sheriff’s operations. Revenue from the jail boarding program above that is committed 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.

Since 2018, the jail boarding program excess revenues have supported more than $1 million in non-tax levy-funded special projects and capital improvements at the Sheriff’s Office and Justice Center.

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.

The number of local inmates has dipped in recent months to a daily average of 163.3 men and women, down from a high of 183.3 in May.

Projects approved by the committee to be funded include:

n Spending $34,000 to remodel the jail medical offices by resurfacing floors and improving the safety and privacy of medical exams by providers. Inmates increasingly have medical issues due to age, mental health or other disabilities, officials say. The jail added its first full-time mental health specialist in June 2024 as nearly two-thirds of the jail’s inmates have been diagnosed with a mental disorder.

n $22,000 to replace the jail kitchen’s 30-gallon tilt skillet, as the current one, dating to 1991, is inoperable.

n $53,500 for a contactless vital monitoring system for at-risk jail inmates. It’s the first FDA-approved commercial medical device that can measure micro-vibrations from the body to track heart rate, respiratory rate, motion and presence. Its radar technology eliminates the need for physical contact, even sensing vital signs through blankets, clothing, furniture and drywall. “This will greatly benefit our ability to monitor overdose, withdrawal and complex medical inmates,” Sheriff Christy Knowles said in a memo.

n $15,500 to install a Live Scan digital fingerprinting system to enhance courtroom security. The system captures and electronically submits fingerprints to government agencies for background checks. It replaces the traditional ink-and-paper method.

n $31,000 to purchase red dot sights for jail deputies’ handguns. This purchase would standardize jail deputy-issued handgun equipment with other deputies’ weapons, reducing the need for two different firearms training sessions.