Sara Whitaker, Senior Criminal Legal Policy Analyst with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, talked to the Wood County Commission early this week as officials are looking at how to deal with increases in the county’s jail bill. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission is again looking at jail costs as those continue to increase for housing prisoners within the regional jail system.

Sara Whitaker, Senior Criminal Legal Policy Analyst with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy talked to the commission this week on ways the county can better control its jail bill.

Wood County Administrator Marty Seufer said the jail bill for the current fiscal year will be around $2.5 million compared to $2 million last year. He is expecting it to increase another $250,000 next year if everything stays consistent with what it has this year and if the county has around the same number of inmates this year as it did last year.

Wood County Court Coordinator Pam Brust has been regularly auditing the county’s jail bill and finding instances where the county was overcharged and getting credits on other jail bills and more. Officials said she found “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in improper billings over the past several years.

Currently she has been concentrating on the prior month’s bill.

“We are still getting $3,000-$5,000 every month,” Wood County Commission President Blair Couch said of credits being found on the jail bill.

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said he wants to see the state Legislature find another way to be able to fund the regional jail system.

“They don’t want to raise taxes,” he said. “They want us to raise taxes.

“That is wrong.”

He said he doesn’t want to be in a position where the county would have to raise taxes every year to be able to pay for a projected increase in the yearly jail bill.

“I don’t know how much we can put this burden on this county if the state doesn’t do something to help us,” Colombo said. “They are creating this problem.”

The North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County is at 145% of its capacity, Whitaker said.

A lot of costs being incurred by counties involve prisoners not being released on time where some end up being incarcerated for additional days because all of their release bonding paperwork cannot be completed and processed on time. As a result, counties have to pay for that extra time.

There is also a shortage of attorneys who can advocate for a prisoner to be released on bond.

“Sometimes it is more than a week before an attorney is there to make the legal argument for bond,” Whitaker said. “Most people coming in (to magistrate court) off the street can’t make those arguments on their own.

“People have had to wait a long time to get a bond hearing.”

Whitacre feels some counties can institute a Day 1 Representation pilot program where attorneys would be made available to argue for bond release in some cases. She felt that was something county officials could talk to state lawmakers about.

Some people have had to wait three or four days to be released once their time has been served in the regional jail. Whitaker said all of those additional days can really add up and end up costing counties a lot of money.

Officials said they are having a problem finding qualified attorneys to do this work. In some instances, they have had to use attorneys who do not specialize in criminal law to be able to have an attorney present.

Whitaker said there are a number of counties making the choice to divert an increasing number of their county dollars to their jail bills.

Wood County officials have said they want the violent offenders to be incarcerated and are not advocating for letting those people out. They want to see non-violent offenders be able to be released on bond quicker.

“Last year, counties were billed $49.4 million and that will be $57.5 (million) this year,” Whitaker said if the prisoner numbers remain the same. “The only way to save money and stay level is to reduce the number of people who are being detained unnecessarily.

“A few days at a time can add up.”