HUTCHINSON, Kan. – During the County Commission meeting Tuesday, while approving paying bills for the county, Commissioner Dan Deming noted that, included in those bills, will be the last payment they have to make to out-of-county jails for housing inmates in those counties.
The last payment, according to Deming, is to Chase County for a total of $22,350. That represents housing for part of August.
The county had been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for housing inmates in other counties prior to the new Reno County Correctional Facility opening. With the much-needed space now available, the county no longer needs to house inmates in those other counties.
When the new Reno County Correctional Facility opened and they were finished transferring prisoners from the old jail and jail annex, they then started the process of bringing inmates from those other counties back to Reno County. Some were housed as far away as Ford County.