Stearns County Jail policy costs taxpayers roughly $1.1 million annually

ST. CLOUD — Stearns County is paying approximately $1.1 million annually to house local inmates in other counties' jail facilities, according to data obtained by the St. Cloud Times via the Freedom of Information Act. This follows a 2020 policy change to house one inmate per cell instead of two.

Meanwhile, the county is currently looking to build a new justice center, including a jail, on an undeveloped lot outside the city center, which is estimated to cost no more than $325 million. County officials are hoping to pass a sales tax referendum to fund the project, but if it fails, the financial burden will likely be offset by property taxes.

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, Stearns County Sheriff Steven Soyka was challenged with keeping the infectious disease outside the jail’s confines. However, with new inmates coming in each day, the solution was changing protocol to house inmates in individual cells rather than bunking them together.

Since Stearns County only has 135 general population jail cells, this new policy is proving to be a challenge considering the number of inmates is ever changing. Hence, the county exported 418 inmates in 2023 compared to 109 in pre-pandemic 2019. When the county first implemented this single bunking policy in 2020, it spent roughly $352,000 housing inmates in other counties versus nearly $1.1 million in 2023. Out-of-county-housing spending in 2021 was at roughly $415,700 and $750,600 in 2022.

“There's nothing that drives me nuts more than sending an inmate to another county because we don't have the space,” Soyka said. “Our taxpayers are paying for (other counties) to keep their lights on.”

“(Right now) we have close to 30 people in Crow Wing County. We have a couple in Meeker and a couple in Wright.”

Housing inmates in other counties can range from $55 to $127 a day, depending on the county the inmate is housed in.

Now, more than four years later, Soyka said the individual bunking policy is here to stay. He told the St. Cloud Times the decision comes in part due to staffing and inmate safety concerns, especially with local jail suicides going up 13% nationwide, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

“When somebody gets kind of suicidal, they figure out a way to try to hang themselves from their upper bunker,” Soyka said. “We definitely are looking to change that model. But, for right now, we're still in single bunking, which obviously takes up space.”

The Stearns County Jail has seen a handful of suicides in the past 15 years ranging from self-inflicted cuts to hanging .

Stearns County looks to build new jail

Soyka expressed relief that the Stearns County Board of Commissioners decided last month to relocate the jail to an undeveloped field instead of keeping it downtown. Although the timeline and exact layout for the new facility is still unclear, he told the St. Cloud Times that this move allows for future expansion, which would not have been possible with a renovation of the current downtown location — a solution reminiscent of a 2014 temporary fix .

“If we're on a field, it's going to be much easier for us to try and build later on if we want to,” Soyka said. “We just don't know (what the future needs may be.)”

The previous 2014 $5.1 million temporary fix included moving the St. Cloud Police Department to its own location, outside the justice center, and using the newfound space to expand the county jail. Soyka said the move happened after a study showed an increased need for both the county’s jail and courthouse.

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However, that temporary band aid is now peeling off. But with the guidance of a new 2022 study, the Stearns County Board of Commissioners paved the way for a new 270 bed jail, law enforcement center, county attorney’s office, community corrections department and a court with 14 courtrooms to be built under one justice center.

Soyka said the current jail facility wouldn’t suffice even if inmates bunked together.

“Even when we housed two inmates per cell before COVID, we were already busting at the seams,” Soyka said. “The building is getting older. It's got leaks and doesn't hold its heat or air as well as it used to.”

The sheriff said the new building would also provide more space for rehabilitation programming to help reduce the number of repeat offenders. He said career services and educational programming helps these efforts but are cramped for space in the jail’s current set-up.

Funding the new jail

While the exact layout for the new jail is to be determined, the new justice center is expected to cost no more than $325 million and is to be paid during a 30-year timespan. How that bill will be paid is also in limbo.

The board of commissioners is still debating the wording for a November sales tax referendum question, but currently there are two options. The two options differ in terms of when the collection of the tax will end, with one saying it'll end when it "completes the purpose of financing the construction" while the other would be "no more than 30 years or until the project and associated bonding costs are paid for, whichever comes first."

If a sales tax is not approved via referendum, it’s likely the cost will be offset by increasing property taxes.

Corey Schmidt covers local government for the St. Cloud Times. He can be reached at cschmidt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Stearns County Jail policy costs taxpayers roughly $1.1 million annually