Warren County officials estimate the Missouri state government owes Warren County at least $160,000 to reimburse operating costs at the county jail. Rather than being daunted by that number, court and law enforcement officials say this is actually the most caught up the state has been in years.

Whenever a person is convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, the state government partially reimburses the cost of holding that person in jail before their trial, explained Sheriff Kevin Harrison. The state currently pays $22.58 for each day that a convicted inmate has spent in the county jail.

If a person is acquitted, or sentenced to probation rather than prison, the state doesn’t pay anything, Harrison said.

According to Court Clerk Tim Beard, who submits the reimbursement requests, the state government has historically been prone to falling behind on payments, often owing Warren County over $500,000 — more than a year’s worth of reimbursements behind. And even when the state is more caught up, as it is now, Harrison said the amount the state reimburses is less than half of the daily cost to keep an inmate in jail — about $55 per day.

All of this means the taxpayers of Warren County have had to step up to ensure consistent funding at the jail, Harrison said. In 2020, it cost almost $1.8 million to operate the county jail, according to a county budget document. Of that, $755,000 was directly funded by Warren County tax dollars.

Audit faults state payment system

Warren County isn’t alone in this challenge. A report by the State Auditor’s office released in December 2020 found that state payments for jails across Missouri were falling short of local county needs. While state payments have kept up with inflation, auditors found that costs for local jails have increased faster than that.

“Incarceration costs incurred by counties for state prisoners have continued to increase, resulting in county governments increasingly subsidizing state incarceration costs,” auditors concluded.

But the state is making progress in catching up on county reimbursements, at least for now. In Warren County, the audit notes that the state paid almost $675,000 in the 12 months ending June 2020, but still owed Warren County significant money. 

Beard said additional payments have come in since that period, bringing what the state owes down to about $160,000 as of January. He said the slowdown of court cases due to COVID likely helped the state catch up.

“A year ago we were in the $600,000 range. ... That’s when we were running a year or more between (request) and reimbursement,” Beard said. Although the situation is better now, Beard said he could only hope it stays that way once the pandemic ends and normal court operations resume.

Funding challenge

Sheriff Harrison said he isn’t surprised that auditors found fault with the state’s system of reimbursements. He said there has often been resistance in the Missouri Legislature to reimbursing more jail costs, even though state law says counties are eligible for more than what the state pays.

“There is an amount that is the maximum authorized, but each year the Legislature and governor set the (reimbursement) rate for that budget year. So even though the statute says one thing, they’re choosing that they’re going to pay $22.58 per day,” Harrison said. The maximum reimbursement rate is $37.50 per day. 

“It’s odd, and I think that’s why the auditor was critical. But we’re not in a position to do anything about it,” Harrison remarked.

To close the gap between what the county needs and what the state pays, Harrison said the county has a contract to house federal prisoners, which pays enough to offset some of the other jail costs. Inmates also pay some of the costs through commissary purchases while they’re in jail, and board bills once they’re out.

But none of that comes close to covering the jail’s total budget, and that’s where Harrison said county taxpayers end up footing the rest of the bill. Before the 2018 passage of Proposition P, an additional half-cent sales tax for county law enforcement, Harrison said delinquent payments from the state government could harm the budget for the jail, forcing the county to use up funding that could have gone to other purposes.

“What we’ve been trying to do is become less dependent, so we don’t feel the immediate impact if the state is late,” Harrison commented. 

But if the state government would commit to paying what it owes in a timely manner, and paying a better rate, Harrison said it could allow his department to make more ambitious budgeting decisions, including for hiring and supplying deputies.

“I just don’t want to be caught off guard to where I suddenly have a giant hole in my budget,” if the state doesn’t pay, Harrison said.