29 August 2017 Dearborn County Council Partial Budget Meeting Notes on Sheriff's Budget including Jail

 29 August 2017 Dearborn County Council Partial Budget Meeting Notes on Sheriff's Budget including Jail

Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Charlie Keyes, Ryan Brandt, Alan Goodman, and Bill Ullrich. 

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Leah Bailey, Comptroller

9:45 AM

Informal discussion was going on regarding other areas and jail staffing. SueEllen Cauble was present for that. 

Morris asked how to make a sound decision when the information you are getting is questionable. The DOC letters seem to be arriving at budget time and requiring more staff, is that regardless of the design or need? 

Brandt discussed the minimum duties of a sheriff. Also talk about Indiana State police helping out in Ripley County when they need more officers on occasion. 

Morris- net increase of 3 officers since the new jail. He is asking for 5 more now. 

Keyes- we got a letter and attorney weighed in- so what do we do. Give them all 5, 3, or none?

Lansing- shifts may need to change. 

Sheriff Kreinhop, Dave Hall, Jail Commander, and a 3rd man arrived before 10. Keyes went over to talk with them prior to 10 AM meeting schedule.

Morris- said- they have gone the the budget and gone with a lesser amount. Narcan question- they have administered several doses. He kept asking Ryan Brandt “isn’t that right?” $2500 is covered by Terry Van Winkle. 2 doses are $40 each. They had one person they administered to twice- on 2 separate instances. They are not judgmental regarding who gets it or not. they have saved several lives. Heroin and Fentanyl are epidemic. Just touching the Fentanyl can cause side effects. Narcan has no side effects per Kreinhop. They can administer Narcan to a police officer if they have touched dates fentanyl and had symptoms. 

Hall and he reviewed the jail budget. The body scanner is on the jail budget. There is one that is not as good as the one they had. Scanner detects items that are concealed in body cavities. It will be used on work release inmates also as they have contact with the public daily when they go to work. $118,750.00 is the cost. 

Hall said Hancock County has the same one for 2 years No problems so far. It is a single view vs a dual view. 

Kreinhop- Still need a search warrant to get the contraband from the body cavity. Marion County is purchasing one of these also. 

Morris- They also want 5 vehicles- in their ongoing process pf purchasing vehicles. The vehicles are at least 2 years old with 100,000 miles or more. Council wanted to wait on this to decide. Some thought that the trade in time was early as the car still had more life to it.

Five additional jail officers- Morris said they have great concern on how to justify this increase. 

Kreinhop- 275 prisoners now. Averaged 281 in 2013. Kraus gave different numbers per year. Lansing asked.

Kreinhop said they could get other prisoners to help pay for the 5 officers. Morris said we don’t want to count on more prisoners unless we had them. Kreinhop wants to staff trained first. Morris persisted on wanting something more solid. Kreinhop said other county does their own transport. But we have to provide meals, clothing etc. 

Morris said- until we have receipts from the jail to cover this- how do we justify this? 

ISA - Ind State Sheriff association- backs raising the fee from $35-$55 per day for prisoners to be housed. 

Discussion of costs to house each inmate. Kreinhop said meal cost was $1 per meal. And other costs all of which seemed to be unbelievably low. And does not include labor costs. Big discussion from Goodman and Lansing with him regarding the business costs and also the need for more beyond the 5 if the state said we need 5 CURRENTLY. Brandt said if you look at all the jail officers- some are serving in the courthouse etc. There are 41 of them now.

Kreinhop said they have 2 separate studies from Mr Wilson. He didn’t bring them with him.( Why not?)  

Morris said that Wilson doesn’t have a great reputation with people outside law enforcement. His credibility is in question by people outside law enforcement. The studies are bloated and not sustainable. 

Kraus went on at length about why $55 is needed to house more inmates and should be $75 - we should make a profit if we house more prisoners. Goodman agreed. 

DOC reimburses for Level 6 felons we house. Contracts for inmates have not been done so Kreinhop doesn’t know what it looks like yet. Billing for these is apparently collected way behind the billing per Leah Bailey. Keyes is pushing for the increased staff per the letter. Will Goering from Switzerland County is Kreinhop’s lawyer he used. He said they could be sued. At least give us at least one  officer to show we are trying. 

Morris- when was the last time we were sued for something like this? Kreinhop- have to check with insurance companies- he remembered the one from 1991 when jail got built. Big discussion of the numbers needed to handle shifts at jail. Brandt said 41 officers should be sufficient. Ended with Kreinhop wanting to take more prisoners. Will leave his info for them. 

Part time wages were discussed. They don't use jail officers at Hoosier Square. Overtime was reduced to $35,000. Bedding and clothing $15,000. Housing moved to Commissioners budget. Education and training $3,000. Inmate medical- and includes mental health and dental- (anything in excess of $10,000/month at DCH we have to pay)- nurse practitioner placed the MD who went back to military- $325,000 for inmate medical. 

Morris asked about the commissary fund- and it should be used to offset jail costs. They want to take it out of county general and have the sheriff use it for jail expenses. Use it for jail bedding. Agreed. 

Cum Courthouse- campus security - $60,600. cameras, touch panels, door controls, maintenance, etc. IT issues and costs discussed. Pennington asks about rotating the computer purchases. Yes- they do it annually. Pennington says administration bldg does 3 computers every other year. 

Jail officers can be done in 2018 even per Morris. Bailey said the DLGF will want to see revenue stream to offset new inmates- perhaps with contracts etc. Apparently there is a need per Kreinhop. Keyes- just pick one and try to work something out to see how it works with a smaller population. Start off with 5 for example. There were 115 beds and 40 of these are in jail workplace area and not utilized per Hall.  

Sheriff ended at 11:20 AM 

[NOTE: Council has not gotten good data from sheriff regarding costs. Inmate housing from beginning to end should be recalculated. They are leaving out costs when they count a meal as if it’s just food. Purchasing, storing, labor to prepare and clean up, utensils and dishes should all factor in. Same for housing prisoners- costs include heat/A/C, water, electricity, phones, staff coverage, bedding, clothing, laundry etc. It might shock them to see how little $55/day really covers.]

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township