Jail reimbursement bill hits roadblock

A proposal to force the Montana Department of Corrections to reimburse county jails housing state prisoners at their true cost was tabled by a budget committee Wednesday, despite overwhelming support from the state House on a preliminary vote.

Rep. Don Jones is sponsoring House Bill 230, which would eliminate the state’s cap on reimbursements paid to county jails for housing the state’s prisoners. The $69-a-day cap was created by language in the 2015 biennial budget bill, but sheriffs from large counties across the state say it doesn’t cover the full costs, leaving their taxpayers to pick up the tab.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry told the House Appropriations Committee that his jail’s per-day cost is $84, and the difference amounts to more than $80,000 now being paid by county taxpayers.

After the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the measure, it passed a second-reading vote before the full chamber 95-5 before being re-referred to the budget committee.

During the budget panel’s Feb. 2 hearing on the bill, committee members questioned whether the legislation would shift the reimbursements too far in the other direction. Rep. Ryan Lynch, D-Butte, suggested the way the bill calculates reimbursements would require the state to not only pay the per-prisoner costs for food, medical and other variable expenses, but also to pay for fixed costs like building and equipment depreciation.

Rep. Tom Burnett, R-Bozeman, asked whether removing the cap could allow counties to raise the costs of housing prisoners “somewhat arbitrarily,” by increasing wages for staff and other expenses.

“Not all of our prisoners are paid by the state,” Jones responded. “For us to all of a sudden run up the costs … the county is going to have to pay that, and everyone else.”

Burnett’s concerns echoed those of Sen. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork. In a Jan. 27 interview, Keenan said he crafted the language capping reimbursement rates in last session’s budget bill after reading an April 2015 story in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

The newspaper reported that the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office had seen a surge in revenues by housing out-of-county inmates, including some sentenced to the Department of Corrections.

The story also noted that the state department was paying the county $98 per day to house its inmates, while nearby counties reimbursed Gallatin just $65 a day — and extra funds were flowing into the sheriff’s department for equipment upgrades.

The Bigfork Republican said the county was “kind of mining the state” and compared the jail-space issue to a classroom: Just because you add a couple more students, “it doesn’t mean you have to hire a new teacher.”

Keenan also pointed out that counties have the ability to refuse state prisoners if their jails are too crowded. But during testimony last month before the House Judiciary Committee, Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin, the only sheriff in the state who has adopted that policy, said his county still pays the costs of transporting state prisoners to a facility where they can be held.

The 22-member House Appropriations Committee voted almost unanimously to table the bill. Only Rep. Kelly McCarthy, D-Billings, voted against the motion.

Despite the procudural roadblock for Jones’ bill, Keenan said he and other lawmakers are looking to this session’s budget to find a compromise on the issue. That fix is still taking shape, but he said one possible solution would change reimbursement rates after a jail reaches a “trigger” based on remaining capacity.

Rep. Randy Brodehl, R-Kalispell, sits on the budget committee, and also chairs the joint appropriations committee that handles the Department of Corrections budget. In an interview Thursday, Brodehl said the bill could have set up a conflict with the proposed budget being crafted by his subcommittee.

“Rather than have those two things collide, we tabled it,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it’s dead, it just means we’re not ready to do anything with it.”

He added that he’s working with Jones on possible language to address the issue, but also noted the difficulty raising spending in a tight budget cycle.

“We’re coming into this fixing a $350 million hole,” Brodehl said, “so the likelihood of rates being increased or anything like that is significantly reduced.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.