An answer to the question, "How much does it cost to keep one inmate in the Columbia County Jail per day?" has raised more questions than it addressed.

The daily per-inmate cost, as computed by county comptroller Lois Schepp, is $90.28.

But, if just one inmate were let out of jail for one day, that cost would drop by only $7.39.

That's because nearly all the costs of serving an average of 240 inmates per day are fixed costs, for things such as workers to guard the inmates, utilities, building operating costs and insurance.

The report on jail costs, unveiled at Wednesday's County Board of Supervisors judiciary committee meeting, had committee members and sheriff's deputies scratching their heads.

The report got further discussion - and a request for further clarification - at Thursday's meeting of the County Board's finance committee.

Judiciary committee chairman Richard Boockmeier of Portage said several supervisors had asked how much it costs each day to keep someone in the jail, partly to evaluate the need and effectiveness of a new program called Circles of Support, designed to lessen the likelihood that a newly released inmate will be returned to incarceration.

During discussion related to the 2009 county budget, which the supervisors approved Nov. 12, Supervisor Timothy O'Neil of Columbus contended that, assuming a daily per-inmate cost of $50 to keep someone in jail, Circles of Support would save the county $15,000 if the program could keep one ex-inmate from returning to jail for 300 days.

But, even though the cost of incarcerating an inmate, as computed by Schepp, is far more than $50, her computation also suggests that much of that cost would have to be paid regardless of whether a particular inmate were in jail on a given day.

"Whether you're operating at your minimum or your maximum," said judiciary committee member Andy Ross of Poynette, "the costs stay pretty much the same."

There are, however, some costs that go down - but not by much - when an inmate is no longer in jail.

According to Schepp's calculations, food costs would drop by $5.79, medical costs by $1, operating and supply costs by 10 cents each and utilities costs by 40 cents per day for each inmate that is not in the jail.

Schepp said there may be decreases in such things as water use if a prisoner is released, but it's difficult, if not impossible, to measure that decrease.

County Board Chairwoman Debra Wopat said Schepp factored into her calculations every cost that could be related to the operation of the jail, including unspecified "indirect costs" ($118,706), interest on debt ($684,087) and inmate trust operating costs ($150,000), arriving at a total annual cost of a little more than $7.9 million.

Dividing that number by 365 days in a year, then dividing the quotient (a little more than $21,666) by the average daily inmate count of 240 results in a per-person, per-day cost of $90.28.

At the finance committee meeting, Schepp noted that not all of that $90.28 would come out of taxpayers' pockets.

Some of the cost, she said, is offset by the money that Columbia County is paid for housing inmates from other jurisdictions.

This prompted committee members to ask her to break down the per-day cost further, to arrive at a concrete figure showing how much Columbia County taxpayers pay, every day, to keep one person in jail.

At the judiciary committee session, Boockmeier noted that, in at least one other Wisconsin county, the cost to house one inmate in the county's jail was calculated at $18 to $20 a day, but there is no way of knowing whether that calculation factored in costs comparable to those used in Schepp's calculation.

Darrel Kuhl, the sheriff's department's jail and communications administrator, said it's almost impossible to arrive at an accurate per-day, per-inmate cost figure.

"Determining what it would cost is really up to who's doing the accounting," he said. "It can go as high or as low as you want it to."

Boockmeier said the initial assumption of a $50 per day cost for each inmate was based roughly on what the county is paid for out-of-county inmates housed in the Columbia County Jail.

For housing inmates from other counties (or from other jurisdictions, such as the state Department of Corrections), Columbia County brings in about $1.1 million a year, said Chief Deputy Mike Babcock.

That doesn't necessarily mean, Wopat said, that the county could make a lot of money by opening other areas of the jail to make room for more non-county guests, because additional costs for things such as utilities and maintenance also would apply.

And, Babcock noted to the finance committee, it doesn't necessarily mean that Columbia County is being underpaid by charging $50 per day to house inmates from other jurisdictions, because the money that the county is paid for out-of-county prisoners offsets some of the per-day, per-inmate cost.

"It's being projected as a losing situation," he said, "when it really is not."

Boockmeier said a copy of the per-day, per-inmate cost calculations will go to all 30 members of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors when they convene at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday for their monthly meeting.

ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com

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