County Hopes to Offset Costs by Housing Federal Prisoners

CAMP VERDE, Ariz. — Yavapai County Jail has begun housing prisoners from the U.S. Marshal’s office, hoping that the fees it will collect will reduce its operating costs and help offset a $1.2 million jail budget shortfall.

Forty-six female prisoners in custody with the U.S. Marshal’s office have been transported to the jail and will complete their sentences there, providing about $80,000 per month in income for the county.

The county’s sheriff’s office has been seeking contracts to rent out jail space for about a year and a half in an effort to defer costs of operating the facility, and the U.S. Marshal is the first to sign an agreement.

The jail will hold the low- to medium-risk inmates for 30 to 100 days, depending on their sentences, and then hand them over to the Immigration Department for deportation.

The female inmates will be housed in a facility pod that was opened in July to ease overcrowding for the county jail. The pod has an additional 30 beds available for females, and 40 to 60 beds for males are available on the opposite side of the pod. There is also another 120-bed pod that remains vacant, and 40 beds in a unit built for juveniles has not yet opened.

County jail officials are continuing to negotiate with other government agencies to fill up the available space. If they can rent another 30 to 40 beds, they expect to cover more than the $1.2 million shortfall, allowing them to meet other county needs.

The county is currently working with the Arizona Department of Corrections on the possibility of opening up another pod, but the county is concerned with state DOC prisoners that require higher levels of security and expect privileges not afforded to county inmates. DOC prisoners have personal TVs, lockers and cook tops for soup, so Yavapai County’s cells would have to be converted to accommodate electrical outlets and additional features.