KSPR Pulaski County Missouri Sheriff Wants New Jail

http://www.kspr.com/news/local/42036607.html

The man who makes the laws and the man who cuts his paycheck are butting heads over the people accused of breaking the laws in Pulaski County.

KSPRs Joanna Small went to Waynesville to hear both sides of a story that could ultimately end up in the taxpayers' hands.

Despite budget woes the sheriff says the county desperately needs a new jail.

But the presiding commissioner claims the idea is financially out of the question right now.

"You can tell the wear and tear; it needs painting all over."

It may be an antique but the jail isn't exactly the pride and joy of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department.

Bottom line for me is you have to move forward, and to do that you have to expand, explains Sheriff J.B. King.

Expand out of a facility he considers a safety hazard.

King found a place to do it- a nearly vacant building right across the street.

It could handle all the county's inmates including those sent to neighboring Miller County at cost of $35 a day per prisoner.

In the last eight years we've paid out over two million from memory to other counties and jail systems to house our prisoners, King explains.

The sheriff's figures of what we paid out are correct- what he didn't say is what we received. We're receiving $21.50 a day for every prisoner."

Pulaski County Commissioner Bill Ransdall says the real cost after state reimbursement is closer to $60,000 a year to send inmates to neighboring counties.

Plus he says there's no money for a new jail- We had to borrow $150,000 last year to balance the budget- or even to refurbish an old building, and the current system works.

Is it a big financial burden on the county? No, Ransdall answers his own question.

The sheriff says the burden's on his department.

The taxpayers may never get their chance to weigh-in.

The three commissioners have to vote to put a bond or law enforcement tax on the ballot, which so far, they haven't.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• KSPR
• Missouri
• Arkansas
• Ozarks
• Pulaski
• County
• Jail
• Prison
• Crime
• Joanna
• Small

[longfootbuddy]

im sure they want plenty of new jails to house all the offenders of their absurd laws