MORGANTOWN – At noon Friday, the cost of an Uber ride from Morgantown to the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County was $107.
That’s more than three times what the county is currently charging Morgantown, Westover, Granville, Star City and West Virginia University to transport arrestees to jail.
Under existing transport agreements with the municipalities and WVU, each is charged $35 if a trip includes an arrestee brought in by their respective police departments. The charge is not per person. If there’s more than one arrestee from a given jurisdiction taking the ride, it’s still $35.
That may be changing significantly – and as soon as July 1.
During a recent work session between the Monongalia County Commission and MCSD leadership, a plan was discussed that would dramatically change what and how WVU and the four municipalities are charged for transport services.
Barring emergency exceptions, the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department makes the approximately 140-mile round trip to the North Central Regional Jail twice daily.
According to Sheriff Todd Forbes, a conservative estimate of the cost of each trip is $217. He explained that estimate represents the price of fuel and two transport officers. It does not include wear and tear on the specially outfitted transport vans that are replaced every two to three years at a cost of $90,000 based on the most recent purchase.
In an effort to more equitably share the cost of transport, and, to a far lesser extent, address the county’s runaway jail bill, a plan has been presented that would increase the fee from $35 per trip to between $160 and $200 per arrestee transported.
It was explained the new charge would represent an increased transport fee plus one day of the state’s per-diem charge to the county to house someone in a regional jail.
What would that mean to the municipalities?
Using Morgantown as the example, the sheriff’s department transported 269 people arrested by the Morgantown Police Department between June and April. Of that number, 211 were billable at $35, for a total of $7,385.
Using the initial figures presented in the proposed changes, the cost to Morgantown would have been between $43,040 ($160 x 269) and $53,800 ($200 x 269).
“We’re not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars with this increase. But it’s enough, hopefully, to have the other places do the right thing as far as who they’re sending to jail. Right now, we’re getting prisoners who, quite frankly, should be cited and released,” Forbes said, explaining ongoing issues with the Morgantown Municipal Court are exacerbating the issue.
“Maybe this deters that,” he added.
Additionally, the county is exploring a $25-$35 charge for arrestees who are handed off to the sheriff’s department, but end up bonding out before being transported.
Again, using Morgantown as the example, the city had 590 arrestees meet this criteria between June and April. With the proposed fee in place, that would have been an additional $14,750 to $20,650 cost to the city.
“I think that we’re missing the boat a little bit on this babysitting fee, because that’s essentially what’s happening. Sometimes they’re too intoxicated to be arraigned, so that becomes our responsibility for some reason. There’s a lot of liability,” Forbes said.
All told, under the changes as presented, the services Morgantown received over the last 11 months for $7,385 would have cost between $57,790 and $74,450.
“In Monongalia County, the commission has not had an increase in transportation costs to the North Central Regional Jail in over 10 years,” Monongalia County Commission President Tom Bloom said. “We are now looking at ways to share the cost of transportation with each city.”
The county is looking at a number of way to address an overall jail bill that’s likely to surpass the $2.2 million budgeted by $1 million in the current fiscal year.
Transportation costs aside, this change would be a drop in the bucket in terms of the county’s jail bill. Under the proposed plan, the municipalities and WVU would have paid for a total of 379 inmate days in the 11 months between June and April. As of March, the county was already on the hook for more than 44,000 days with three months remaining in the fiscal year.
Worse, come July, the daily rate charged to the county for every person being held in the regional jail will jump 31%.
“This isn’t for profit. This is not even making a dent in what we pay. This is just helping offset some of it a little bit,” Forbes said.
“The cost continues to spiral upwards and the state dropping the entire problem on the counties is not fair or realistic,” Bloom added.
