Dear Commissioners, August 28, 2014 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Commissioners:

    These are estimated daily expense numbers for the new 176 bed jail as based on an average 140 inmate population, i.e., 110 local inmates plus 30 transfers from state prison system (Al Klemm,: My Turn WDN, March 15, 2014):

    •  Debt Service: $30/day/inmate
    •  Food: $10/day/ inmate
    •  $11/day/inmate...two shifts, 1 guard/20inmates plus extra guards for women, transport, vacation and sick leave at $33,000 per guard
    •  Utilities: $3/day/inmate, i.e., heat, light, water
    •  Miscellaneous: $4/day/inmate, i.e., repairs, wear-tear and ancillary staff, etc.
    •  The above amounts to $58/inmate/day to keep our own county prisoners in a new jail.
    •  Total cost of holding a full census of 110 inmates at home in a new jail and transferring no overflow inmates to Pitt will be $6380/day (110*$58 = $6380).
    •  We will be $3/inmate/day worse off with the new jail on all transfers previously sent to Pitt County at a current cost of $55/inmate/day.
    •  On the Statewide Misdemeanant Confinement Program transfers we expect to receive from state prisons we will get paid $40/head/day, so on those 25 to 40 SMCP inmates we lose $18/inmate/day.
    •  Entire cost/day under new regime of holding 110 county inmates plus 30 SMCP inmates transfers at the new jail: 110*$58 + 30*$18 = $6380 + $540 = $6920
    •  Hypothetically, if we rehab the current jail and courthouse for $7,000,000 and even reduce cell space to 75 beds, in order to give more working space to staff, then estimated costs are:
    •  $10/day/inmate in debt service
    •  $10/day/ inmate for food
    •  $6/day/inmate for guards...two shifts, 1 guard/20inmates plus extra guards for women, transport, vacation and sick leave at $33,000 per guard
    •  Utilities: $2/day/inmate, i.e., heat, light, water
    •  Miscellaneous: $2/day/inmate, i.e., repairs, wear-tear and ancillary staff, etc.
    • The estimated costs would be $30/inmate/day for all inmates held in a remodeled jail, but our census at Pitt would rise to as many as 35 inmates. The total cost of holding 75 at home in a remodeled jail and holding 35 at Pitt (75*$30 + 35*$55) is $2250 + $1925 = $4175 per day.
    •  Difference in cost per annum ($6920/day - $4175/day): $2745/day*365 days = $1,001,925 per year
    •  Net present value of $1,001,925 per year at 4% over 20 years is roughly $13,626,000 in today's purchasing power.

    As to transportation costs, the need to regularly move 110 inmates from Chocowinity to Washington should not be much cheaper than managing the remodeled courthouse's inmate population so that prisoners requiring hearings are kept near while prisoners not expecting to appear in court in the near future can be sent to Pitt County. In any event it is hard to imagine that Chocowinity holds more than a $1,000,000 logistics advantage over Pitt County. I imagine the expenses to be closer to a "push."

    If you have better numbers then present them to the taxpayers. However, if these estimates are reasonable, then if you were to cancel the new jail, and remodel the courthouse for $7,000,000, and then burn $10,000,000 in cash on the courthouse steps, the taxpayers will still be $3,626,000 better off than completing the jail as proposed by commissioners Belcher, Booth, Klemm and Langley.

    Please stop! Stop before you do the county irreparable harm.

    Regards,

     Warren Smith
      Beaufort County, NC

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