County jump-starting lucrative prisoner program

After a hiatus of more than two years, state prison inmates are once again calling the Ozaukee County jail home, with more possibly on the way, including inmates from the federal prison system.

Ozaukee County Sheriff Christy Knowles told members of the county Public Safety Committee recently that the state Department of Corrections has placed 12 of its inmates in the county jail and has requested that the county take as many as 30.

“Plus, we’re looking at the U.S. Marshal wanting to place prisoners,” Knowles told supervisors on the committee.

“I wanted to start with 12 because we’re just not up to staff. We’ll have to open a third pod in January” to accommodate the additional boarders, she said.

Knowles did not give a reason for the state’s sudden interest in the county boarding its prisoners, but it has been widely reported in recent months how overcrowded state prisons are.

Boarding state and federal prisoners was a significant revenue generator for the Sheriff’s Office that suddenly evaporated two years ago.

The county was earning $50,000 to $85,000 a month boarding state inmates for several years.

That abruptly stopped, however, in late 2021 as the state cut back on asking local jails to house their inmates.

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.

Currently, only a handful of boarders are housed at the jail each day.

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. Before that, the funds had gone into the county’s general fund.

Potential revenue from the jail boarding program is not insignificant. The Sheriff’s Office makes up about two-thirds of the county’s entire budget.

The 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 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.

That ended when President Barack Obama’s administration transferred federal prisoners to the president’s home state of Illinois.

The federal revenue stream ending “presented a very significant budget challenge that impacted departmental budgets and staff countywide,” County Administrator Jason Dzwinel said at the time.