BROWNSTOWN
The county has netted a half-million dollars in savings since converting the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Center to a new wing at the Jackson County Jail, according to county officials.
During a recent county commissioners meeting, Lt. Adam Nicholson with the sheriff’s department gave a report showing $116,746.28 had been spent on transporting and housing 50 juvenile offenders this year through the end of October.
The adopted budget for the juvenile center, which closed March 31, 2018, was $869,578. In 2017, the county took in $330,800 by housing juveniles from other counties at the center in 2017 — its final full year of operation, Nicholson said.
The sheriff’s department, jail and juvenile center opened in 2000.
Commissioners voted in February 2018 to close the juvenile center in an effort to alleviate overcrowding at the jail. At that time, juveniles were transported to other juvenile centers in the area.
The jail had a capacity of 172, but converting the juvenile center’s three pods increased the jail’s capacity to 228. The conversion also provided a classroom for inmates.
On Tuesday, 282 inmates were housed at the jail.
Sheriff Rick Meyer gave a similar report to county council members during their November meeting.
During that meeting, county Councilman Brian Thompson said the change has helped the county in multiple ways.
“I think the big deal is not only about the savings but that it opened up our overcrowded jail without a capital expense for expansion,” he said. “It saved millions of dollars by reallocating an area of the jail.”
Council President Dave Hall said funds saved by closing the center allowed for the addition of nine jailers to help with overcrowding issues.
He said nobody working at the juvenile center lost their jobs — unless they decided to leave — and some filled the newly created jailer positions.
“We were spending around $910,000 in the general fund budget from that special purpose tax,” Hall said. “When we closed that juvenile detention center, there was $300,000 or $350,000 that was coming back from housing other juveniles from other counties.
“We were still spending about $550,000 to $600,000 on that (housing Jackson County juveniles) ourselves. We are now spending less than $150,000 on that. That net savings for us to be able to put it into employees was $400,000 to $500,000.”