How does sheriff spend existing jail money?
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EUGENE, Ore. - Voters face a May 21 vote on a tax levy to support the Lane County Jail.
The jail is part of the Lane County Sheriff's Office budget, which is $57 million.
Where does that money go?
The jail alone costs $19 million, the lion's share of which goes towards payroll and benefits, according to the sheriff's office and the county budget.
To operate 135 jails beds this year, the sheriff will spend $12.22 million on staff; $4.36 million on inmate medical, food, utilities and other materials and services; and $2.37 million to other county departments for services, like county counsel and human resources.
Those 135 beds aren't enough to hold all people accused of crimes until they face trial or post bail. As a result, even people accused of some serious crimes are let go in what are known as "capacity based releases."
A proposed 5-year tax levy would raise over $15 million to open jail beds. Ten percent would fund beds in the juvenile detention facility.
The county projects that the measure would allow the jail to operate 255 jail beds for local offenders, almost double the current number.
Conversely, the sheriff predicts the jail could shrivel to as few as 26 beds in two years if nothing happens.
The cost of operating the jail has outpaced the growth in property taxe revenues available to the sheriff's office. The county is also coping with the loss of Secure Rural Schools and Communities money. That law was a federal subsidy to timber counties, intended to replace timber revenues from federal lands lost as the timber harvest has declined.
" Voters face a May 21 vote on a tax levy " I cant wait to vote no! America (formerly land of the free) has become a parasitic police state.
@ChipClip Sad to say, I agree with you. Unfortunately, although I believe almost every single person in Oregon/U.S.A. would too, they STILL will vote like they ALWAYS have and vote the INCUMBENT in again. It happens every time!!! I say,  vote them all out, get new ones in, and if THEY still wonât listen to us, VOTE THEM OUT AND START OVER AGAIN. (THAT is the important part, voting them OUT in the NEXT election!) Eventually, the politicians who WORK FOR US will get the idea: if they continue to run things as they have always done, they will lose their jobs quickly!!! But I guess this idea is too simple for most to get and they will, again in the next election, vote the same corrupt career politicians in. Stupid.
I wonder if we can find out the details of these expenditures. I want to see more than an overview of the budget. "Personnel services" covers a lot of ground.
How about we resume logging?
pilage and plunder your tax dollars. happens all over the country by sheriffs, to the point where defendants are voluntarily committing crime just so they can get arrested and jailed for all the benefits provided by incarceration. vomit.
O.k so let me see if I have my math straight: $4.36 MILLION a year (on inmate medical, food, utilities and other materials and services) divided by 135 beds comes to $32,296.29 a bed/year. That is the cost of housing 1 inmate for a year. That is more then many FAMILIES make in Lane County. Why are these criminals living so far above the poverty level for a single person? Clearly LCSO needs to re-design the way they do business and who they do it with. Don't even get me started on how the "Personnel Services" (paychecks) keep going up despite many people in private sector struggling without pay-raises. The Sheriff might have thought releasing these numbers would make us have sympathy, all it is really doing (for those of us that do math) is prove what we've been saying for some time now. You are not managing your money properly.
A good share of the money goes to PERS, Public Employees Retirement System. The problem is that they refuse to address this issue which is already billions in the red State wide. When you combine the average benefit with the early retirements, and then hire backs (double dipping) the cost to taxpayers is enormous. I say they get no more money until they can prove sincere reform to come into line with the private sector. Have you noticed that they never mention PERS or double dippers when they talk about these things?????
This looks like 135 beds costs $19,000000, or  $140,740.74 a bed per year and $385.59 a bed per day.  If these figures are correct, we are spending far too much money with far too little returns.  I am shocked at the figures the Sheriff reports and hope they pencil is not working correctly.  I support law enforcement and the confinement of criminals, but what are we feeding these thugs?  Call Sheriff Joe and get some hints on how to run a jail.
Lets see, 135 beds for 12.22 MILLION dollars: that is over 90 THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR EACH BED, Â Just FOR STAFF!!! Â What?!?!?!?!
And they wonder why we are upset about their money management!!!!!
No more money until they adjust their thinking!!!!!