The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department is seeking additional funding in next year’s county budget to expand its newly-launched jail drug addiction treatment program.
Jail addiction treatment coordinator Theresa Patton is calling for increasing the participation of female inmates in her programs by 25% to 50% above current levels next year. If her proposal is approved, there will be 18 to 21 women in each treatment group next year.
For the men, Patton’s proposal calls for a 50% to 100% increase, so between 12 to 30 male inmates could receive treatment as a group.
In order to achieve these increases, additional help is needed. Patton is asking that her current budget of $114,995 be more than doubled in 2021 to hire the necessary personnel. She is requesting an additional $144,915 to hire a full-time addiction recovery counselor and two part-time addiction recovery coaches/specialists, Chief Deputy Sheriff Maj. Chris Lane said.
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The requests were made during county budget hearings that began Monday before the Bartholomew County Council.
No council member questioned the need to get more inmates into addiction treatment. Patton’s request was made the same month that the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office reported a record number of drug-related investigations during the first half of 2020, with fatal drug overdoses more than doubling when compared to the same period last year.
While the annual cost of keeping a jail inmate locked up ranges between $18,000 to $25,000 annually, addiction treatment costs between $3,000 to 5,000 a year, Patton said. These treatment programs, when coupled with support services after an inmate is released, have been proven effective in keeping many former inmates sober, so they aren’t placed back behind bars again, Patton said.
The costs for addition treatment at the jail are evenly split between the city of Columbus and county government, Lane said. At this time, the Columbus City Council has not been asked to approve the increase, Sheriff Matt Myers said.
The proposed $4.78 million budget outlined by Myers for the department’s law enforcement division was $167,072 higher than this year.
Myers said he trimmed quite a bit from the first draft of his spending plan. For example, the sheriff says he dropped most requests for promotions in both the jail and the law enforcement division, as well as most raises.
The only requested salary increase would cost an additional $6,135 to promote a current deputy to lieutenant, Myers said.
However, the deputies still have their matrix-pay system, which provides extra earnings for those with military experience, specialized training, longevity and shift differentials. Two new employees who are both veterans will share an additional $2,856 that has been added to the 2021 budget, the sheriff said.
One of the biggest annual costs for the department is replacing patrol vehicles. Myers anticipates eight vehicles will have enough miles that they will need to be replaced next year. The cost will be about $38,000 per vehicle, or a total of about $304,000, Myers said.
However, due to delays likely resulting from the pandemic on the automotive industry, seven vehicles ordered in March for this year — mostly Dodge Ram 1500 Special Service Vehicles (SSV) — still haven’t arrived, the sheriff said.
The department is attempting to make a transition to an all-truck fleet, because trucks have a better resale value and fewer mechanical problems when compared with cars, Myers said. In contrast, the Dodge Chargers in the sheriff’s fleet tend to have front-end problems, including bearings and brake systems, after the odometer reaches more than 100,000 miles, the sheriff said.
The proposed 2021 budget includes an additional $89,158 for pensions recommended by the company that manages the department’s retirement plans, Myers said.
Finally, the department is receiving funding through already appropriated funds from the county commissioners to purchase body and car cameras, Myers said.
If it weren’t for those cameras, as well as pension increases and other mandatory expenses, the 2021 budget for the law enforcement division would have been $49,000 less than this year, Myers said.
After the reopening of a older section last year to increase capacity, the proposed 2021 budget for the county jail “is pretty flat,” the sheriff told the council.
He is proposing an $4.95 million budget for the jail, with increases totaling $17,738 above this year, Myers said.
That includes an increase of $9,407 in medical costs, the sheriff said. The department has been forced to drop a contract it reached last spring with Advanced Correctional Healthcare (ACH) that was intended to provide the jail a supplemental nursing staff.
Myers said he doesn’t blame the Peoria, Illinois firm for not being able to hold up their end of an agreement, because the company has been unable to find nurses willing to work in jails or prisons since the novel coronavirus emerged as a pandemic early this year.
While the jail division won’t be providing raises next year, a matrix system that increases salaries for qualifying correctional staff will continue next year.
Finally, there was a cost reduction announced Monday. Myers said he was reducing the amount of money budgeted for the jail’s legal fees by $5,000, bringing the annual allocation to $15,000.
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Today through Aug. 21: Budget review with county offices, the Solid Waste Management District and the Convention, Recreation and Visitor Promotion Committee. Hours are noon to 6 p.m.
Sept. 8: Public hearing and first reading of the 2021 county budgets. 6 p.m.
Oct. 13: Second reading and adoption of all 2021 budgets. 6 p.m.
Although the public is not allowed to attend these sessions in person due to COVID-19 at this time, the sessions are livestreamed.
Contact the Bartholomew County Auditor’s office at 812-379-1510 for instructions and passwords required to watch the live budget sessions.
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