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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 20, 2005 Commissioners OK housing jail inmates in other counties Renting space from outside jurisdictions will save Jackson County $600,000 a year over the cost of expanding jail space By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune Inmates could move from the Jackson County Jail to beds rented in Yamhill County as early as next week. County commissioners approved a contract Wednesday to house 25 sentenced prisoners in Yamhill County, northwest of Salem and about 260 driving miles from Medford, at a cost of $55 per inmate per day. Renting jail beds elsewhere instead of expanding locally will save about $600,000 a year, said Capt. Rod Countryman of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department. The contract with Yamhill County does not include transportation costs, Countryman said. But the jail already trucks inmates around the state on a regular basis. The captain said he hopes to piggyback inmates with others bound for Oregon’s prison system because the state pays for those trips. The county soon will sign another agreement to house 75 more inmates in the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Center in The Dalles, east of Portland about 360 driving miles from Medford. That facility serves Gilliam, Hood River, Sherman and Wasco counties. Seeing a large number of inmates walk free because of space constraints in the Medford jail, county officials last year set aside money to reopen an 85-bed jail near Talent. That jail closed in June 2003 because of the statewide budget crisis. Advertisement But operating the Talent facility would have cost the county about $2.6 million per year compared to $2 million to rent beds in other counties, Countryman said. County commissioners Wednesday said they were reluctant to reopen a jail only to have it close if funding was unavailable in the future. The contract with Yamhill County comes with no permanent commitments attached, said Commissioner Jack Walker. "It just makes a lot of sense to put ourselves in a good, safe spot," Walker said. The former Talent jail may open in February as a non-secure work center for convicted criminal offenders on parole or probation. The county now houses 72 probationers in a work center next door. Of the 11,088 inmates lodged in jail last year, 24 percent were released early because of overcrowding. Those suspects were released without any form of alternate supervision, just a mandate to show up for court, Countryman said. The jail has room for 230 prisoners. Violent offenders typically stay in while property and drug offenders are the first to leave under the jail’s release rules. Nearly 29 percent of the 211 inmates released because of overcrowding since Jan. 1 have left the jail’s custody with some form of their sentence remaining, Countryman said. Holding inmates accountable for every day of their sentence is one goal county officials think can be accomplished by renting space in other jails, Countryman said. Anyone sentenced to less than one year, including probationers serving a disciplinary sanction, is eligible to move north, said Sheriff Mike Winters. Convicted criminals serving more than one year stay in state prisons. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail [email protected] County won’t charge fee for Measure 37 claims No fees will be required to file Measure 37 claims with Jackson County. County commissioners voted Wednesday to process applications without requiring a fee while agreeing to refund $1,800 the county has so far collected from 12 county residents who have filed under the new law. The text of Measure 37 contained no mention of fees, commissioners said. "We are going to correct a long-standing wrong" of violating property rights, said Commissioner C.W. Smith. Approved by voters in November, Measure 37 allows property owners the right to file a claim with a government agency if they believe regulations have resulted in decreased property value. If the claim is found valid, the government agency either has to reimburse the landowner for the lost value or waive the offending property regulations. Commissioners Smith and Jack Walker voted to eliminate the fee while Commissioner Dave Gilmour voted against the change, citing costs for staff to research claims. If no fee is required, the cost is shifted to other taxpayers, he said. Some local cities and other Oregon counties require a fee to file Measure 37 claims. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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