Quorum court funds jail study to find cost savings

The $87.7 million 2019 budget the Garland County Quorum Court adopted Monday night includes $45,000 to identify efficiencies the county may not be taking advantage of at the detention center.

The money will pay Voorhis Associates Inc. to study policies and procedures at the jail and look for potential cost savings. The county paid the Colorado criminal justice consulting firm $1.2 million to assist in the design of the jail and the development of its supervision and personnel policies ahead of the $42 million facility’s June 2015 opening.

The study will increase the jail fund’s 2019 budget to $7.5 million, according to information presented to the quorum court Monday night, leaving about a $5 million fund balance to make up the almost $1 million difference in annual expenses and recurring revenue.

County officials have said current spending levels are not sustainable without the general fund subsidizing jail operations.

The three-eighths cent countywide sales tax voters approved in 2011 to operate and maintain the 168,000-square foot facility is projected to generate almost $6.6 million next year. Collections of the tax began in April 2013, raising about $11 million prior to the jail’s opening, but about $6 million was drawn against the fund for expenses that included operating the old detention center on Ouachita Avenue during the first half of 2015.

Other pre-opening expenses included $540,000 for Voorhis’ consulting services, more than $1 million to outfit and equip the new facility, $1.15 million in 2014 salary and benefits for about 50 employees — many of whom had been transferred from the general fund-supported sheriff’s department budget to the jail fund — and $115,200 for a one-time bonus the quorum court adopted to improve employee retention at the jail.

Chief Deputy of Corrections Steven Elrod told the quorum court that Voorhis’ study will be akin to an audit, supplementing scrutiny the jail is subjected to from state and federal agencies and accrediting services.

“In essence, this is an audit,” Elrod, who took over administration of the jail two years ago, said. “That’s what we were looking for. We want to continue to expand our horizons and continue to verify our strengths and weaknesses in all areas of our facility.”

The study will review the effect the more than two dozen self-improvement programs offered to inmates has had on reducing recidivism. Programs include GED and parenting classes, job training and substance abuse treatment. The sheriff’s commissary fund budget for next year allocates $25,000 for inmate programs. Commissions the county receives from inmate phone calls and commissary purchases support the commissary fund.

The study will also review employee recruitment and retention policies, contracts for inmate health care and food service and how criminal justice statutes and policies have affected the rate of growth in the inmate population. According to the schedule Voorhis submitted last month, the study is expected to be concluded by late next month.

“Anytime you have a major undertaking and you get a couple of years in, you stop and reassess how we’re doing what we thought we’d be doing three and four years ago,” District 9 Justice of the Peace Matt McKee told the quorum court. “A lot can change in four years. Some of these projections go back farther than that.”