Through Sept. 2008 to Feb. 2009, Mingo County paid over $707,000 for charges and costs of inmate maintenance and operations of Southwestern Regional Jail.

As of Monday, officials from the jail report there are 80 inmates from McDowel County, 58 from Boone, 57 from Logan and 118 from Mingo.

The county dished out $134,652 for 2,834 days during the month of February at $47.53 per inmate each day.

“We are always going to have a jail bill,” said Mingo County Commissioner David Baisden. “I do feel there are crimes (for which) people need to be incarcerated. I would like for our officers to consider every time they put someone in jail it cost the county money that could be used for new police and cruisers.”

Baisden says the commission does budget money for the jail bill but asked for some assistance from local law enforcement.

“The county officers and state police, if they would come together and consider the nature of the crime and if they can give citations then do so.”

However, officials at Mingo County Magistrate Court say offenders are assessed court cost even if they are only given a citation. A fee of $47.53 for one day is deducted from the court cost. The majority of court cost goes to the state to be distributed in various ways.

“There is no delay on the cases,” City Police Chief Roby Pope said while complimenting the system. “We have a full-time judge that works on it.”

WDN recently reported the regional jail system has millions of dollars in excess jail fees. If passed Senate Bill 770 will provide that excess funds in the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority Fund do not revert to the general revenue, but to the local governments.

The bill would call for the authority to transfer any funds that exceed 25 percent of operating costs. According to Authority Executive Director Terry Miller, that excess is currently $11.4 million. The Authority currently charges counties a fee of $47.53 per day for each inmate the county has in its facilities. That rate will be raised to $48.25 in July.