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Following a suit by Cabell County claiming the WV Department of Corrections was charging too much for regional jail says, the cost has been lowered 77 cents a day.
Currently the cost is $48.50. Starting July 1st it will be $47.73.
Cabell County Commission President Scott Bias, believes the state Regional Jail and Correctional Facility was charging too much all along.
The savings for large counties like Cabell could be about $60,000 annually.
The court sided with the jail authority last month and ordered Cabell County to pay its unpaid jail bills. The final tally could reach $1.8 million.
The court also ordered the authority to explain the way it charges counties in a new legislative rule.
Overcrowding in state prisons is forcing more state inmates to serve their sentences in regional jails, he said. Nearly a third of all regional jail inmates - about 1,200 out of 3,725 - are state-sentenced inmates.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said
"The bills are just killing these counties."
Meanwhile, WV is looking at building more jails, needing more space.
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