RD168 - Annual Report on Jail Cost - FY 2003


Executive Summary:
The average operating cost per inmate per day was $54.81, up $.29 from last year's report. Jail operating costs per inmate day ranged from a low of $ 29.82 at the Henry County Jail to $ 125.51 in Fairfax County.

Total expenditures (including capital costs) reported to house inmates in local and regional jails and jail farms in FY 2003 were $539,460,495. The Compensation Board provided funding of $240,493,000 with other state agencies providing an additional $10,020,000, primarily for capital costs. Virginia's localities contributed $184,868,000 to operate local and regional jails and an additional $5,964,000 to house inmates in other jurisdictions. In addition, Virginia localities contributed $46,265,000 to meet debt service obligations. The federal government provided funding of $37,206,000. Other funding, such as inmate telephone commissions and medical co-payments, investment income and earned interest, contributed $14,724,000. Work release funds generated by the inmates provided $6,379,000.Housing out of state inmates generated $5,000. Central State Hospital paid $446,000 to lease a portion of a regional jail. For FY 2003 the eighteen regional jails showed a net excess of revenues over expenditures of $6,910,000.

The Commonwealth's average share of total expenditures was 46.5%. It ranged from 86.6% for the Charlotte County Jail to 19.1% for the Fairfax County Jail. The locality's share of total expenditures ranged from a negative .2% contribution to 74.77%. The average locality's share was 42.9%.

Thirty-four jails received federal and out of state housing fees totaling $32,616,000. Federal revenues accounted for more than 10% of the total at 9 jails. Central Virginia Regional Jail received 75% of its funding from federal sources while Northern Neck Regional Jail received 74%. The Commonwealth's overhead recovery program returned $7,237,000 to the general fund, an increase of $5.05 million over last year, because the new recovery formula took effect.

Average operating costs per inmate day for the Northern Virginia region were $80.71. Other regions of the state were substantially lower. The Central region was the next highest at $49.08, followed by the Eastern at $47.84. The Western region's cost per day was $43.74.

Commonwealth funding in FY2003 for jail expansion totaled $8 million. The payments made to Allegany County Jail accounted for $4.4 million; The Arlington County Jail received $1.8 million and the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail added another $1.2 million of the total. Local funding for jail expansion totaled $ .4 million.

During fiscal year 2003 local jails incurred 5,434,000 inmate days or 61.4% of total housed inmate days. Federal/out-of-state inmates days accounted for 3.09% of the local jail's total. Total costs for housing inmates in sheriff run jails was $2.22 per day higher than the average ($60.97) for all jails in the Commonwealth. On average, all localities funded their jail's expenditures by 44.9%. It was lower than the state average jail funding by 1.3%. The Commonwealth funding average was 46.2%.

In comparison to the state average ($54.81), regional jail's operating costs were $4.96 lower per day. These jails are the newest in the state and were designed with additional capacity for future population growth. When debt service and long-term capital costs are included, the regional jails' total costs were $3.35 per inmate day lower than the state average. Regional jails were responsible for 37.1% of the state's total inmate days. They held 70.0% of the federal and out of state inmate population. With an average of 1,054 federal inmates, these facilities received $20,887,000 of federal per-diem monies or $54.30 per inmate day. The state average was $59.29.

The state continues to partially fund the operation of two jail farms. They accounted for the remaining 1.5% percent of inmate days. Their average daily operating costs was $52.51 or $2.30 a day lower than the state average of $54.81. Due to their age, they incurred minimal capital expenditures/debt service costs ($0.18) per inmate day during the year. This resulted in total inmate expenditures per day of $52.69. They did not hold any federal inmates nor receive any federal funding.

For localities that did not operate a jail, the City of Harrisonburg paid the highest amount for holding inmates at $822,000, followed by the Central State Hospital at $446,000.

The fifteen largest facilities, as measured by DOC operating capacity, accounted for 55.6% of the Commonwealth's total jail funding and these same facilities were responsible for 55.9% percent of all inmate days.

When the inmate canteen accounts were examined, it was found that jails employed three distinctively different accounting methods: (1) Gross Basis - where the costs and the revenues received for the items purchased was recorded; (2) Net Basis -where only a net commission was received for the sale of the items purchased; and (3) Not at Jail Level - where the items purchased were charged directly to the inmates at cost. We also found that the individual jail's operating policy had a direct impact on the related size and amount of inmate canteen activity. For instance, whether or not a jail sells tobacco products through the canteen and how often inmates are allowed to make purchases greatly affects the figures reported in the canteen report.

Similarly, the other inmate related accounts: Telephone Commissions, Inmate Medical Co-payments, Work Release and Investment/interest revenue were recorded using different accounting methods. Most of the jails deposited these revenues into either the inmate canteen fund or with the treasure of the locality/fiscal agent to the general fund. When these designated funds were maintained as separate accounts, their expenditures were reported in The Inmate Canteen Report found in Appendix E.