The Miami County commissioners say they are pleased the sheriff’s office has been able to rent some beds to other jurisdictions for both male and female prisoners since opening the third pod at the county Incarceration Facility this spring.

“We are happy to see that,” Commission President Jack Evans said of the bed rentals to Greenville Police Department and the Darke County Sheriff’s Office.

 The commissioners listed rentals to help offset costs among goals as they talked with sheriff’s office leaders on reopening space at the facility with four 60-person pods. Two of the pods now hold males while the most recently opened third pod houses females.

The county rented beds to other counties and the U.S. Marshal’s Service for several years before the Incarceration Facility was closed at the end of 2009 because of budget cuts.

The sheriff’s office slowly began reopening the pods beginning in 2013.

Instead of renting beds to others in recent years, the sheriff’s office was itself renting beds from neighboring Shelby County to house up to 15 female prisoners a day. That contract was in effect for nearly 18 months before the third pod was opened as a way for the county to accommodate the growing number of female prisoners.

Sheriff Dave Duchak said the county has fewer beds available to rent to other agencies than in the past in part due to limits imposed by the state on the number of prisoners allowed at the downtown Troy jail (now 48 compared to 115 previously). Also having a serious impact has been the growing number of local prisoners, he said. In addition, the fourth pod remains closed, cutting into the number of available beds.

“We are limited in the number of beds available (20 for rent), so we have enough beds to accommodate our judges’ (prisoners),” Duchak said.

An average of 15 people are being housed at the jail for other agencies daily. The high has been 21. The cost is $55 per prisoner per day. Most of the prisoners are either awaiting sentencing or have been sentenced, Duchak said.

Income from the rental was just more than $16,000 in May.

“With only having around 20, we are not actively pursuing other jurisdictions for bed space as Darke and Greenville are filling most of them. If our in-county commitments ever go down and we have excess capacity, we will attempt to increase the rentals. All has been smooth to date,” Duchak said.

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