Jordan $200,000 behind on $459,436 yearly budget with six months to go
Lawrence County Jailer Roger Lee Jordan finds himself in a particularly bad situation at the halfway point in his yearly budget expenditures.
The department’s expenses are figured to be more than $200,000 over for the fiscal year. Jordan says he has no control as the jailer becaue he can’t control the amount of trips he and his staff makes to the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, nor does he control the number of inmates held on behalf of Lawrence County.
As of today, he has a staffing of five that consists of himself, two full time employees and two part time employees resulting in salaries and benefits totaling $107,756.59 for all of the jailer and deputies combined.
“If you knew in advance when someone would be getting in trouble, this would be much easier, but you don’t,” Jordan, son of former Jailer Roger Jordan, said. “We try our best to make as few trips as possible!“
Jordan said the average jail bill on a monthly basis varies from $18,000 and $20,000. That all depends on the amount of inmates Lawrence County holds.
Some of his transport goes like this;
* Transport (from jail in Paintsville) for court only: Family Court on Monday, District Court on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Circuit Court on the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month.
* When an arrest is made, his staff is then called in on their day at whatever time day or night.
He said the Lawrence Co. Sheriff’s department also does some inmate transfer.
Recently the Sheriff’s department had to transfer a female inmate who had been lodged at the jail in Prestonsburg for some time, yet had Lawrence County warrants . Upon booking the female, she explained that she was pregnant. The jail would not take the female until she was medically cleared. That meant the deputy jailers then had to take the female to the hospital and sit with the inmate until she was checked out and medically cleared. That hospital bill will be charged to Lawrence County. We all know what an emergency room visit costs, he added.
County Treasurer Sabrina Cantrell was asked for figures related to the budget overrides.
“A budget is just an estimate of the prior year’s receipts and costs,” she said. “The state gives Lawrence County $4,491.00 yearly for inmate medical bills. The four counties who own and operate the Big Sandy Detention Center, (Johnson, Lawrence, Martin and Magoffin) pay the rest depending on where the inmate is from.”
“For inmate housing, the state gives $53,424 yearly. That alone explains why our jailer will soon be over it’s $459,436.00 yearly budget with six month to go on the budget. That money has to be pulled from somewhere. We have to have law and order, and people will go to jail. While in jail, people will get sick or injured. Something has to change, and we must figure out ways to cut costs.”
Other county departments including the 911 service have similar problems. The 911 service is behing about the same amount at the jilers office.
County Judge John Osborne has not replied to questions about what measures the county will take to overcome an estimated $700,000 deficit this year. In Kentucky, a county cannot be in the red at the end of a fiscal year or risk being taken over by the state government.
Much of Lawrence County’s problem is similar to that of counties all over coal country — no more severance tax money.
Counties have grown dependent on the extra stipend from coal and built up offices and staffs using that funding and now that it is gone… the same staffs remain but not the money pay them.
