La Plata County is increasing the price of housing municipal inmates in the detention center as part of an ongoing conversation over the jail’s capacity to house inmates on behalf of the city of Durango.
The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a letter addressed to City Manager José Madrigal and Police Chief Brice Current informing them that the daily rate to house city prisoners will jump from $78 to $142.65 effective Jan. 1, 2025.
“The La Plata County Finance Department has conducted a new analysis of the actual expenses incurred for housing municipal offenders,” the county attorney’s staff report to the board stated.
Commissioners also authorized the sheriff and county staff to negotiate a new intergovernmental agreement with the city. The current IGA was last amended in 1996.
The rate increase and IGA negotiations that are likely to follow come amid a tense period in city-county relations.
On Aug. 1, Sheriff Sean Smith sent a letter to Current informing him that the jail had exceed its capacity and would not accept inmates held on municipal charges. Those inmates are generally held for short periods of time on low-level charges, often involving a failure to appear in court.
Since sending that letter, the jail census has come down below 170 inmates – the capacity benchmark at which Smith says the jail must be considered full – and Smith said Tuesday he has continued to accept municipal inmates.
Of the four jurisdictions that house inmates in the jail – municipalities, the county, the state and the federal government – only municipal and federal inmates are held at the county’s discretion. With capacity issues rearing their head, the Sheriff decided to restrict the housing of municipal inmates.
City officials, in response to Tuesday’s decision, say the cost is relatively negligible and they are happy to meet the city’s financial obligations.
“I don't think the city has ever had a problem budgeting and paying for services that are important to increase public safety and to prevent crime and to keep people out of the justice system,” Current said.
Smith told commissioners he was working with state officials to examine the jail’s population, which often exceeds that of peer counties, to parse precisely who is occupying the jail and why.
The sheriff has also stopped accepting individuals who refuse to enter a detox. He cited liability concerns in housing those individuals.
The police chief said he was open to communication and doing whatever it takes to maintain public safety.
County officials, too, emphasized this desire.
“It’s not our place to second-guess the city’s municipal program, and even the rationale of their arrests, but it is for us to determine whether the jail can be operated safely both for the employees and the inmates,” County Attorney Sheryl Rogers told commissioners.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
