"ROCKET DOCKET" BILL COULD BRING JAIL BILL RELIEF

(03/22/2005)

The numbers are staggering. An inmate incarcerated at a regional jail for 13 months awaiting trial costs that county almost $19,000. It's a steep amount that most counties can't afford, especially smaller ones with very tight budgets like Calhoun. The regional jail bill is still a big ticket item for Calhoun. Steve Canterbury, the head of the regional jail authority says the legislature is tackling several bills that could help bring down the costs. First is the "Rocket Docket." It calls for decreased time between when an inmate enters the jail and when his trial comes up in front of a judge. The Huntington-Herald Dispatch showed that most of the jail cost to Cabel County is felons waiting to go on trial, serious felons. In West Virginia, the average wait is three terms or 13 months behind bars at a regional jail facility. That is almost $19,000 per inmate. If that could be lowered to 7 months per inmate that would save WV counties $2.5 million dollars a year. That saves individual counties $8,730 per inmate. The second bill would add costs on to those filing court cases. Those who file a criminal case would have to pay an extra 30%. Those filing a civil suit 20%. All that money would go into a fund that would add up to about $5 million for year that could be spread around to all 55 counties for inmate costs. Such a bill would do little to help Calhoun County, or other rural counties. And the third bill would put non-violent offenders on home confinement instead of behind bars. The cost would be minimal compared to time behind bars.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001