Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk appeared before the county board on March 18, 2014 with several requests and presented information about the cost to transport and house prisoners in Lake and Aitkin counties.
First, Falk asked the board to approve the purchase of two ergonomic office chairs for dispatch workers. “They are used 24-7. The dispatchers asked for leather chairs because they are easier to clean,” said Falk
Cost of the chairs totaled $3,062.74 with that amount coming out of the sheriff ’s budget. The board approved the purchase unanimously.
Next Falk requested use of 911 funds to upgrade three personal computers at three CAD stations. “The current CAD stations will not be supported by Tiburon (the company that currently maintains these computers) after April 8,” said Falk.
Commissioners voted unanimously to allocate 911 funds to pay $3,403.05 to Dell computers for three CAD stations.
Falk then presented an overview of the rising costs to transport and house prisoners in Lake County and Aitkin County.
In 2012 the county spent $100,336.94 to transport and house prisoners to Lake and Aitkin counties. Of that, Aitkin County received $9,305 for boarding eight inmates while Lake County received $63,100 for jailing 84 Cook County inmates. Mileage costs totaled $13,146.65, fuel was $1,777.08 and deputy wages totaled $13,008.21.
But costs went way up in 2013, totaling $163,121.36, said Falk.
Some of that was due to overcrowding in Lake County that forced Cook County to take more prisoners to Aitkin, the sheriff said. Also, Aitkin has a bigger facility and offers more services for inmates that are “high risk or high maintenance,” said Falk.
Last year Aitkin housed 50 prisoners at a cost of $48,870 while Lake County housed 102 inmates at a cost of $68,550. Mileage expenses totaled $18,837.67, fuel was $1,958.12 and deputy wages were $24,905.58.
Aitkin charges $45 per day to house an inmate while Lake County charges $50 per day.
Falk said, “I have certainly seen an increase in inmates needing transport,” noting that January 2014 costs for inmate boarding and transportation were over $14,000.
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