The first of six federal inmate holds have arrived at the county jail, Huntington County Sheriff Christian Newton reported to the Huntington County Commissioners last week.

He expects to get one or two more every few days.

“I’ve been working on this for over a year and a half,“ he told The Herald-Press.

Allen County was getting overpopulated with federal inmates, and that’s when Huntington County got involved in adding on and renovating its jail. Newton has negotiated with the federal and state agencies for costs to house inmates.

The new addition is expected to house local inmates and the renovated the old jail to house federal inmates.

The county recently completed building a new addition and renovating the jail after three years since it broke ground. The project turned the former 99-bed facility into one that can safely house 232 inmates, more than doubling the previous size to help alleviate jails overcrowding issues.

Newton said the federal inmates are held from one to six months and the county receives $75 a day per inmate, in addition to other fees. The state inmates held by the facility bring in $37.50 per day.

“We have to be innovative on how we make money,” said Newton in managing the jail facilities. He told the commission that they can expect to eventually receive $800,000 to $900,000 annually from the federal arrangements. Other county jails have also followed Huntington’s efforts. They can hold up to 40 federal inmates, both males and females, charge fees for medical services, gasoline for transportation and offer online court sessions.

The arrangements include to avoid housing county inmates in the same area of the jail with other agencies like Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Marshall holds.

Although the federal and state inmates criminal acts and care are pretty much the same, the county’s services are reimbursed when they use the county nurse, doctor, dentist, recovery specialist team and hospitalization services. The additional revenue goes into the commissary fund.

“The important thing is we’re going to bring in money into the county general fund,” he said.
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