BC 2006 01 23 REGULAR - Laserfiche WebLink

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January 23, 2006 - Regular Meeting Page 480 Mecklenburg County officials looked at their program prior to Christmas with the idea of implementing it in Mecklenburg County. 2. Pitt County: (population: 134,936) This program is supervised by a Cabarrus County native, Eric Todd. They have 60 on Electronic House Arrest. Each person pays $5.00 a day which covers the lease on the equipment and the cost of monitoring. They have plans to increase the fee to $9.00 per day in order to hire another co-ordinator and expand the program to 85. It costs the county $55.00 per day to house a person in its jail. 3. Brunswick County: (Population 73,144) This program is under the Criminal Justice Partnership. They have 60 on Electronic House Arrest, and the cost of program is $2.80 a day which includes the cost of the equipment and monitoring. 4. Moore County: (population: 75,164) This program is under the Sheriff's Department, and they currently have 25 on Electronic House Arrest with plans to expand the program. The cost of their program is $1.52 a day to lease the equipment and $1.28 a day to monitor the equipment. Each in-mate pays $5.00 a day to be on the program. When you consider it costs the tax-payers $63 a day to have a person in jail, it is a considerable savings to the tax- payer. As it was pointed out, they eat out of their own refrigerator and pay their own medical bills. One person on House Arrest had a medical bill more than $50,000. If that person had been in jail, the county would have had to pay that medical bill. 5. New Hanover County: (Population: 160,307) They currently have 69 persons on House Arrest, and it is estimated that this program is saving the county $3 million per year. 6. Stanly County: (population: 58,100) It has implemented both Electronic House Arrest and a similar program as the Rowan Pre- Trial Release Program. 7. Cumberland individuals on Program. County: (Population: 300,893) It has 100 a pre-trial program similar to the Rowan County 8. Mecklenburg County: (population: 747,427) Their representative at the meeting stated that they are making preparations to implement Electronic House Arrest. Mecklenburg is hoping to have at least 150 inmates on House Arrest within a year. It is estimated that it costs $109 a day to keep a person in a detention center. Their electronic house arrest program will probably cost $15.00 per day. They are planning to use the newer equipment that can track an inmate's location to within 15 feet and can send updates to law enforcement officials at least once a minute. Conference participants confirmed that their programs have the enthusiastic support of their Sheriffs; District Attorneys; and District Court Judges. without their support I their programs could not have achieved the success rate that they have. Pre-trial programs have a better success rate for those showing up for their trial dates than those who are on bail. None of the counties with a pre-trial program is having to transport in-mates to other counties as we are planning to do. Program participants have issued an open invitation to examine their programs before launching into a program. I am convinced with my knowledge of these programs that we will not need a $60 million facility as we have been led to construct. One other wordl an pointed out because that the state is prisoners. We will prison. interesting article in the Charlotte OBSERVER of the crowded conditions in state facilities going to use county jails to house state be building not a local jail but a state