MORGANTOWN — Since the closure of the county jail in 2012 an agreement has been in place through which the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department handles prisoner transport for the Morgantown, Westover, Star City, Granville and WVU police departments.
The agencies are billed $35 per trip — not per inmate, meaning a trip with three inmates from Morgantown and one from Granville would cost both municipalities $35.
Perry estimates the actual cost of the three-hour, 140-mile round trip to the North Central Regional Jail (NCRJ), in Doddridge County, is likely in the $150-$200 range depending on whether a second transport officer is needed.
“Sometimes we can get away with just sending one of our process transport officers. But usually, if there are more than four in the van, we take two,” Palmer said. “Process transports make almost $15 an hour. So when you start adding fuel costs and wear and tear on the vehicles, it easily gets up to that amount.”
From July 2017 to June 2018, the 11 full-time and two part-time transport officers made 669 trips to NCRJ using two vans. Over that period, the county budgeted $536,000 for process transport.
Of the 669 trips:
— 313 trips were charged to Morgantown ($10,995)
— 83 were charged to Westover ($2,905)
— 69 were charged to WVU ($2,415)
— 38 were charged to Granville ($1,330)
— 24 were charged to Star City ($840)
Palmer said the remaining 142 trips transported only county inmates. He explained that according to state mandate, inmates should not be held locally for more than 12 hours.
“We closed the jail in 2012. We’re not longer a jail. We’re no longer a detention center or a holding facility. We’re strictly process transport,” Palmer said. “And when you look at the numbers, this is a service that’s being provided.”
The issue came to the fore recently when the county asked the various municipalities to renew their commitment to the current setup. Palmer said there were no changes made to the arrangement but leadership changes in multiple departments warranted new signatures.
While all the agreements have now been signed, members of the county commission said they were somewhat surprised to receive correspondence back from both Morgantown and Westover.
The commission received the signed agreement along with a letter dated January 15 from Westover Mayor Dave Johnson indicating a handful of objections “regarding this ill-considered policy.”
Among them, Johnson points out that Westover officers must leave their jurisdiction to deliver inmates to the county, potentially reducing the department’s response times. He also points out that there is a lack of continuity of custody built into the system and that it was implemented as a dictate without considering the opinions of the agencies being served.
Johnson indicates that Westover is looking at other options for inmate transport going forward.
The county also heard from Morgantown, which sent a proposed addendum to the agreement dated Jan. 16. It stated “In the event of conflict between the addendum and the agreements, this addendum shall control,” before listing 19 bullet points under headings like “Arbitration,” “Hold Harmless,” “Governing Law,” and “Payment.”
The commission consulted its attorney before explaining it would not alter the agreement for Morgantown after WVU and the other municipalities had signed.
According to Morgantown Communications Director Andrew Stacy, the city has since signed the agreement.
“We feel we’ve appropriately raised any concerns regarding contract language with the commission and sheriff’s office and that all parties are ready to move forward with prisoner transport,” Stacy said.
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