LOW MOOR — Alleghany County and Covington’s costs for housing jail inmates continue to soar due to overcrowding.
The costs have exceeded $720,000 this year because inmates are being sent to other jails in Virginia to alleviate overcrowding.
Local officials blame the state for the predicament. The state, they say, has shifted the inmate population from prisons to local jails.
The Alleghany County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution Tuesday night that cites a state law that requires the Virginia Department of Corrections to transfer inmates who receive sentences that exceed one year to a prison facility. The transfer of the inmate must occur within 60 days, the county’s resolution notes.
“The state is breaking their own law,” Jackson River District Supervisor Steve Bennett said.
The problem is being felt by localities throughout the state. Jurisdictions throughout the Shenandoah Valley are backing the same resolution that was approved by the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors Tuesday night.
Recently, county officials have been in discussions with Rockbridge County to come up with a long-term solution to the problem. The idea of constructing a new regional jail is even being discussed.
Alleghany County’s inmate housing costs have risen from $300,000 two years ago to the current level that exceeds $720,000.
“It’s a significant cost for us. The state reimburses us $12 per day for housing each inmate and when it costs us $90, you go in the hole pretty quickly,” said Pete Huber, the county’s interim administrator.
The Alleghany Regional Jail in Covington houses inmates from Covington, Alleghany County and Bath County. The facility was constructed 21 years ago and it quickly exceeded its bed capacity.
“It’s time for the state to pick up their part,” said James Griffith, vice chairman of the board of supervisors.
The county’s resolution asks the General Assembly to fund the actual cost of housing state-responsible inmates as described in a Virginia Compensation Board report to the legislature. The resolution also asks lawmakers to develop additional inmate capacity in the state’s prison system to reduce the strain on local and regional jails.
According to the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, more than one-half of the major institutional jails run by the Virginia Department of Corrections are overcrowded.
The newspaper said that on average, facilities are at 140 percent of their design capacity.
The newspaper reported that in October, there was an average of 4,538 inmates per month in local facilities who should have been in the care of the Department of Corrections.
In 2020, there were about 4,150 prisoners a month at local facilities who should have been in a DOC facility, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper’s report is based on information it received from the state under a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request.
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