There have been several rumors going around since the Adair County Fiscal Court meeting on Tuesday night. One from a media outlet that never even covered the meeting. So, below I will try to explain the situation and discussion regarding the Adair County Regional Jail. It will be lengthy, but I think it needs to be to explain the whole discussion.
In December the Adair County Fiscal Court voted to close the Class D Facility located on Hwy 55 North in Columbia. This was due to only having a few state inmates in the facility since so many was pulled by the state during COVID. At the March 30, 2021 fiscal court meeting, I asked the court if they wanted to consider reopening the Class D Facility. If not, we needed to consider taking bids to mow county property. Magistrate Flatt stated he did not want to reopen the Class D Facility at this time and stated he felt we owed it to the citizens of Adair Co. to see what it would cost us to have another county house our inmates. Magistrate Flatt then made a motion to have Judge Cowan get figures together to house Adair County inmates elsewhere.
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 Fiscal Court meeting, I gave my report to the Fiscal Court. I emailed approximately 10 surrounding counties that have jails what they would charge us to house inmates. I had 3 emails returned. Be advised this does not say they WOULD OR COULD house our inmates. The email stated IF they housed our inmates they would be at these charges:
- Hart County - $45 per day per inmate
- Russell County - $34 per day per inmate (subject to change)
- Taylor County - $35 per day per inmate
On Tuesday, Adair County had 48 county inmates that we would have to pay for. I rounded it to 50 inmates X $35 per day X 365 days per year = $638,750.00.
As of Tuesday’s meeting, we had transferred $716,214.31 to the jail fund. BUT, only $580,759.92 was from the general fund to the jail fund. The other $135,454.39 was CARES funding to reimburse the jail fund for items related to COVID.
My (rounded) estimates if we close our jail including inmate pay, medical, jailer salary, transport officers, and purchase of a van to transport inmates from that county back to Adair for court days….$857,000. That does not include employee benefits, fuel, vehicle maintenance, or additional transport hours on the sheriff’s department who is already strapped and needing more employees. On top of that we would put over 20 people out of a job.
All of this brought us to Tuesday’s motion. It was my recommendation to the fiscal court to reopen the Class D Facility at this time. By opening the Class D, Jailer White can move classified State inmates back to the Class D Facility where he can separate those inmates from the general population inside the main jail. This will allow him to be able to take inmates back out to mow county property and have a litter pickup crew with jail staff. This again, is the only way we can utilize the inmate labor per Department of Corrections regulations at this time due to COVID restrictions. A motion was made to reopen the Class D Facility with the above mentioned guidelines and reevaluate the situation in 6 weeks to see if it is feasible to keep the facility open.
If anyone would like to make an appointment with myself or any of our magistrates to explain this further, please call the Adair County Judge’s Office at 270-384-4703.
Gale B. Cowan
Adair County Judge Executive
