Gov. Haslam Wants More Money For County Jails

Gov. Bill Haslam is recommending funding be increased to house state prisoners in county jails, but according to Sheriff Steve Graves the changes will make little difference to Coffee County. The budget includes a staffing shake-up at the troubled Department of Children’s Services. For prisons, almost $50 million in new annual funding is to be allocated to cover the cost of keeping state prisoners in local jails and $21 million to cover the cost of inmate medical and mental health treatment. According to the sheriff, he was continuing to find out what the new funding would mean for Coffee County, but it probably wouldn’t spell any significant changes in how it handles housing state inmates. Graves stated that housing state inmates is not a money making proposition and that the county gets some additional money beyond the cost to feed and care for the state’s prisoners, but it’s not a significant amount. Graves said the scenario would lead to more money for Coffee County if the per diem daily allotment per inmate were to go up.
He said the number of state inmates fluctuates regularly, and 43. According to Graves the county gets between $35 and $36 per day per state inmate and has to spend between $26 and $27 to feed and care for them. The rest of the money goes into the general fund.