The Knox County Sheriff’s Department is still moving forward with a process that could bring federal prisoners to the county jail.
For nearly a year, the department has expressed interest in housing the federal inmates. The county already houses an average of 15 state inmates daily through a partnership with the Indiana Department of Correction.
Those inmates bring into the county $35 per day, per inmate, money that ultimate helps the sheriff's department fund its operations using fewer local tax dollars.
Now, Sheriff Mike Morris said the department is looking to add some federal money to the program.
“We’re still in the process, we still aren’t sure if it’s going to happen, but we’re optimistic,” he said. “We have a highly-rated facility and we’re located near the federal prison in Terre Haute, so I think it would be of benefit to our local government, but also our federal government by way of transporting and housing.”
Morris said a federal rate to house prisoners would likely remain similar to the state rate, although there is a chance a higher rate could be negotiated.
To date, the department has worked with the U.S. Marshals to find out if the department would qualify to house federal prisoners. Last month, Morris said, the department went through a site visit from the U.S. Marshals based out of Indianapolis.
“They were pleased with our facility, so that’s given us some optimism,” he said. “They’ve gone through our medical information and our standing operating procedures and during their visit we led them through from the time they’d book in to the position where the classification of housing unit they’d stay in was determined.”
Similar to the criteria with the state DOC, the federal government has a stringent list of guidelines and rules to house inmates, Morris said, but the facility is already on par with the regulations.
“It goes beyond our facility, our corrections officer and deputies receive training on a monthly basis to continue their education, promote and grow programs like Life After Meth, efforts with the Samaritan Center and of course the DOC,” he said. “All are mandated to have a certain amount of training hours, we just go above and beyond what the state requires.”
“This is just an opportunity for our department to help out, increase revenue, and relieve some of the pressure on the local budgets,” he said. “We’re able to spend the DOC funds on training, equipment and maintenance and we do use it to the fullest extent of the law, and we’re not spending the local taxpayers’ dollar to do it.”