The well-publicized plumbing problems plaguing the Yadkin County Jail couldn't have come at a better time for Forsyth County.
With the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services ordering the Yadkin County Jail closed comes a potential new revenue stream for Forsyth in a fiscal drought year.
The state action's immediate effect meant that Yadkin Sheriff Mike Cain had to scramble to find jail beds in other counties for as many as 55 inmates in his jail.
"I'm calling, begging every sheriff I know," Cain said Friday. "It is a mandated requirement that a county furnish accommodations for inmates."
Naturally, one of those he called was our own Sheriff Bill Schatzman -- the lawman in charge of the 400,000-square-foot jail over on North Church Street. Compared with the cramped, antiquated mess that Cain has to cope with, the Forsyth County Detention Center is downright spacious and cutting edge.
A deal was cut quickly. Forsyth agreed to take as many as 25 of Yadkin County's inmates a day for up to four months or until officials on the other side of the river manage to get their toilets fixed.
"I feel for (Cain), but there will certainly be a bill," Schatzman said.
Fiscal losses, gains
The going rate for housing jail inmates is about $65 a day. If that sounds expensive, that's because it is.
During the most recent budgeting session, the daily jail population in Forsyth County for 2009-10 was estimated to be 1,000.
That's about $65,000 a day, every day, 365 days a year.
Running the jail got more expensive earlier this summer when the General Assembly decided that it could no longer afford to reimburse counties the $18 per inmate, per day it had been paying to house low-level offenders with sentences of less than 180 days.
The reimbursement, too, had been a cost-cutting measure to begin with, Schatzman said.
The state decided to keep inmates convicted of misdemeanors in local jails because it cost too much to transport them to state prisons.
"The ($18) they were paying us didn't cover the cost, but it was something to help with it," Schatzman said. "Now there's nothing, and that's another thing the taxpayers of this county have to absorb."
Joe Bartel, the county's budget guru, estimated that loss would be about $650,000 a year.
In a county budget that runs to $393.4 million in 2009-10, $650,000 is pocket change.
But it's our pocket change, and every little bit counts.
Enter Yadkin County, and its Keystone Kops approach to its jail problems.
Apparently undeterred by less-than-stellar state health inspections and the fact that a Superior Court judge had basically told them in 2006 to bring the county jail up to snuff, commissioners decided to screw around with a pair of estimates -- one for $75,127 and another for $84,958 -- to fix the plumbing.
As we all know by now, the end result of the dithering was the forced closing of the jail.
The bottom line
With a bed capacity for 1,016 inmates, Forsyth sheriff's officials figured they could take up to 25 from Yadkin -- for the low, low price of $62.22 a head.
As of yesterday morning, the Forsyth County Detention Center had 20 of Yadkin County's inmates.
If that number holds steady for September, Yadkin would cut Forsyth a check for $37,332.
That's comparable to what the General Assembly took away when it cut the jail reimbursement.
Maj. Wayne James, the director of detention services in Forsyth, said that the 122 male inmates who served state sentences here in July would have brought in $37,872 for the month.
"I understand Yadkin County's bind," James said. "It was like that here, too. Until we got this new facility (in 1995), we had an old, dilapidated jail with many maintenance issues of our own."
As always, the bottom line is the bottom line.
Rather than spend $75,127 to fix plumbing problems, Yadkin taxpayers could wind up paying more than $400,000 to fix toilets and house their inmates in other counties. Talk about pouring money down the drain.
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.
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