Prince William County’s crackdown on illegal immigration led to an $800,000 shortfall for its jail this year.
The jail spent at least $129,860 extra in overtime hours used to inspect jailed inmates’ immigration status, and went over budget in housing costs and medical costs as well.
“We’re asking for some money for the 2008 budget to cover a shortage,” said Adult Detention Center Superintendent Col. Peter A. Meletis. “When you run a jail this size, you get a lot of expenditures.”
Supervisor Martin Nohe, R-Coles, said the board did not have a good enough sense of the program’s costs last year to lock down a specific dollar amount for the budget.
“We entered it knowing that we didn’t have enough money,” he said.
Indeed, the board dipped into its contingency fund in February and removed $793,425 to fund the illegal-immigration crackdown.
In addition to the unbudgeted overtime costs, prisoner housing costs went $413,415 over budget, and medical and drug costs for prisoners ran $179,009 over budget in 2008.
The overall cost per inmate per day was $97.52 in 2008, an increase of $2.17 from 2007. The increase in costs resulted from added supplies, increased transportation and other ballooning charges related to the crackdown.
Nohe said the board would to closely monitor the status of the crackdown to make sure the county is targeting violent felons, rather than people guilty of civil violations.
“Whether your immigration violation is a federal crime or not, your [criminal violation] is a crime based on immigration code,” Nohe said. “We’re going to closely examine and re-examine everything to do with immigration.”
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement has given the county $779,175 to help pay for the crackdown. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to put that money into the fiscal 2008 budget, thus covering the shortfall.
