September 6, 2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

HALL COUNTY BOARD OF CORRECTIONS MEETING SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 The Hall County Board of Corrections met from general session and by published call. 10:30 a.m. Rye made a motion and Eriksen seconded to go into a board of corrections meeting. Arnold, Eriksen, Hartman, Humiston, Jeffries, Lancaster and Bob Rye all voted yes and none voted no. Motion carried. Members present were Scott Arnold, Jim Eriksen, Dick Hartman, Bob Humiston, Bud Jeffries, Pamela Lancaster and Bob Rye. Also present was Corrections Director Dave Amold. CORRECTIONS DIRECTOR'S REPORT - Corrections Director Dave Arnold was present he included the statistical information for July and August. The average daily population is 111 inmates. The booked 562 males and 183 females and out of the total there were 1400 offenses, which is an average of two per person. He included the breakdown per agency. The arrests seen to be down from the same period last year but they appear to be going up. He also included the report from Emmett Arnett on the work release crew. They have been doing a lot of work at the Hall County Park. The administrative report was also included for April, May and June. We have not received any payment from the State of Nebraska, but they seem to budget for only half of what they need to pay the counties for holding inmates. Mr. Arnold discussed the problem of the special enforcement grants that provide extra funding for special enforcement but do not provide dollars for housing the inmates once hey have been arrested and booked. This sometimes causes crowding problems especially in the booking area. Mr. Arnold stated that a week ago he had two visitors from the Mexican consulate questioning if they had a list of Mexican nationalist that the County had in custody. He stated that they offered to translate the inmate handbook at no cost but it would need to be reviewed before it was printed. Discussion was held on the capacity of the current jail. Amold stated that the jail is rated for 125 beds and if it is at 80% full it is difficult to classify the inmates. There are a lot of overnighters and half of the people are released in the first 24 hours. Arnold stated that his newest corporal is from a prison in Florida and has some first hand knowledge of the problems. Corporal Jimmy Vann was present and stated that one of the problem with space is the ability to segregate inmates and separate them if there are problems. If an entire block is causing problems there is no place to go to separate them. Weekends are difficult because it is hard to run the jail with 6 people. They just need more cell space. The department is in the process if hiring three more people and that will help but they still will need to be trained. Arnold mentioned space also an issue on classification rival gang members no place to put them. When they are booked in they cannot determine this before they are put in a cell. When they are in the bull pin and it is crowded this also causes problems. It takes time to process and this is a difficult area to manage, they just a need more space. 1