TELL CITY – When an offender is booked into an Indiana jail, it occurs with certain rights; one being access to medical care. The Perry County Detention Center has taken steps to ensure that this standard is met. That means cost to the county, and expenses are on the rise as both the price of care and the inmate population increases.
Long maintaining a medical service agreement with a medical provider, when the county took steps to develop the new detention center, leaders also did so with an eye toward future needs. Now, because of changes in state law in recent years, more and more offenders are staying in local jails rather than being transferred to the Indiana Department of Correction.
Capable of holding 136 offenders, that future of inmate population is almost here. In past months, the Perry County facility had as many as 114 people booked in, and according to Sheriff Alan Malone, their daily average is 91 offenders. Some of that population has been bolstered by housing Vanderburgh County offenders. Currently, the Perry County Detention Center has 10 such beds filled.
In a move dating back to last May, the two counties entered into an agreement that would see overflow jail population from Vanderburgh County transferred into this county’s jail. Doing so allowed the Perry County jail to operate more efficiently and to recover $35 a day per inmate, equating to $2,450 a week. That money is held in a special-use fund to supplement the budget that the sheriff can use extra expenses associated with the maintenance and upkeep of the facility.
Taking on extra detainees has come with a bit of a hindrance when it comes to medical care for inmates.
The county has an agreement Quality Correctional Care of Muncie to have in-house nursing up to 16 hours a week. However, Malone said that original accord – which costs the county about $70,000 annually, was hashed when the jail held about 60 prisoners and the medical team just can’t quite keep up with the demand.
As such, he asked the county council Thursday for an appropriation of $9,000 from the supplemental account to pay for a full 24 hours a week of medical care.
“This is absolutely necessary with our current count,” the sheriff said.
While fees for medical and similar expenses, according to the agreement, are paid by Vanderburgh County, those inmates aren’t necessarily impacting the issue that much. Most of the inmate population stems from Perry County residents, or at least those processing through the court system here. And as the weather heats up, Malone said it often shows an upward trend in offenders taken into the jail and he foresees a boom in their daily counts in the near future.
The appropriation is expected to be discussed further at the next meeting.
In other business, the council gave a nod toward two separate tax abatements for ATTC Manufacturing. With several other upgrades already in play at the factory, ATTC is planning to add investments of $4.14 million for a new line to support Acura auto parts and another $1.8 million for addition of a line to help cover the volume of parts being produced for various trucks and sport-utility vehicles.
The upgrades are expected to create an additional 6 jobs at the Tell City plant.