By Katie Northcott, News Director
At its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 14, the Bedford County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the Bedford County jail to raise their fee to house out-of-county inmates to $75.03.
The county is raising its rates after realizing it was losing money by housing inmates from other counties for a fee lower than the inmates’ actual cost of living. An average of the jail’s monthly costs shows that it costs an average of $75.03 per day to house an inmate.
In two to three months, the commissioners plan to discuss another increase in fees charged to other counties to house inmates to offset the money the county loses when housing state inmates. The state pays the county a fee of $44 per day to house state inmates, creating a loss of $20 per day.
Some commissioners were concerned that driving up the fee to house inmates in Bedford County would cause other counties to stop sending inmates to Bedford County entirely. Commissioner Diane Neely suggested a fee of $100 per day, saying that it might be better for Bedford County to avoid getting into the business of housing other counties’ inmates.
“That’s just wear and tear on our jail, and eventually it will end up costing us more to do that,” Neeley said. “So why not just price it where we’re done with it and have the policy in place?”
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