BRIGHTON — A limit on the number of municipal inmates allowed at the Adams County Jail starts Jan. 1 as other measures are looked at to ease overcrowding there.
But the so-called “soft cap” on inmates irks city officials who on Tuesday attacked a plan to start charging municipalities for the inmates they sentence to the county jail.
“It seems to us the county is kind of like giving us a take-it-or-leave-it type of thing,” said Thornton City Councilman Mack Goodman.
In fact, every city served by the Adams County Jail rejected two options offered by Sheriff Doug Darr to relieve jail overcrowding.
Aurora, for instance, would have been given only four beds on any one day at the county jail, when it averages about 20 a day. Bust through the soft cap, and the county would charge the city $55 per additional inmate.
The move is necessary to fill a gap of $7 million to $9 million in the Adams County budget.
Darr wants to close three jail units to save the county $1.3 million. Shutting down an additional unit and closing the jail’s second floor could save an additional $692,000.
In all, Darr proposes cutting the number of jail inmates to 30 from about 130.
But the cities say limiting the number of inmates they can send to jail — even for petty offenses — could pose a risk to residents.
“You look at the rap sheet on a lot of these guys, and these are not somebody you want on the street,” said Aurora City Manager George Noe.
City officials also noted their residents’ tax dollars pay for much of the jail operations but that they would see services slashed under Darr’s jail-cap proposals.
“It’s not right, and it’s not fair,” Goodman said.
Thornton offered another alternative: transferring long-term prisoners to low-cost jails in Washington and Park counties.
The city also is asking the county to consolidate some positions and to more closely manage inmate medical costs.
Darr said he is merely trying to make ends meet.
Because of demands to staff the jail, Darr had to close a program aimed at tracking Internet predators and take other officers off the street.
“Did that cause me pain? Sure it does,” Darr said.
The county and the cities agreed to the “soft cap” on municipal inmates. The county also will assemble a criminal-justice commission to look at jail issues and will examine the proposals offered by Thornton.
Darr wanted the cap imposed by Nov. 1. He said interim measures fall short of what the jail needs.
“We’ve got to put the brakes on, and we have to start now,” he said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
