By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission voted Tuesday to hire a consultant to assess the possibility of expanding the Ellis County Jail.
As the city of Hays prepares to move out of the Law Enforcement Center in 2026, the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office will plan to move into the space occupied by the Hays Police Department.
The vacated space could be used to add jail cells. The jail has a capacity of 72 inmates, but the county can't always use that full capacity for a variety of reasons, Ellis County Sheriff Scott Braun said.
Each cell has two bunks. If someone has to be isolated, that cuts down on the number of inmates the jail can house.
Someone who is a witness in a case can't be housed with someone who is also a party in a case. An inmate who misbehaves might need to be locked down in a cell by himself or herself.
The gender of the inmates, the levels of their crimes and COVID are also contributing factors.
The number of inmates Ellis County has had to house out of county has recently ranged from eight to 18, Braun said.
Housing those inmates out of county costs the Ellis County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, Braun said.
There are daily housing fees to other jails, medical expenses for those inmates, fuel, the cost to purchase and replace vehicles to transfer those inmates back and forth when they have court, as well as personnel costs to transfer those inmates, according to information provided in the county commission meeting packet.
Braun also said any time deputies have to hit the road for transport, the county's liability increases.
He said the county works with High Plains Mental Health to help people who have mental health issues from having repeat issues with the legal system. It also works with the court system to keep the number of inmates down.
"I think part of the reason our numbers are so high is that COVID stopped people from being arrested to some extent," Braun said. "Only the most serious ones were put in our facility.
"We continue to have those violators, and the courts are saying there has to be some consequences."
Within the last month, the courts have sent 10 people to prison — three of those for life sentences, Braun said.
"Believe it or not, as we get one out, we get someone to replace them," he said.
He continued "Whether we do it here within our facility with this study, we are going to be paying for inmates. [We can give] our money to Graham County, Rooks County, Ford County and maybe Thomas County, or we can try to keep some of that within ours."
Commissioner Nathan Leiker said the average court interactions are 18,000 per year. Pre-COVID, those interactions were 30,000. He said he wanted to note the county's court interactions are still not back to those before COVID.
Leiker asked Braun about the severity of the crimes for which the inmates in the jail are incarcerated. Braun said it was a roller coaster. He said the county has more recent homicides than he can remember. The county also has had to deal with inmates with drug offenses or crimes related to substance abuse.
Commissioner Michael Berges said his long-term goal would be to house all of the Ellis County inmates in the county.
However, he said many unknowns exist now, including the timeline for the city vacating the law enforcement center and potential changes in judges and other elected officials.
"We get this full assessment done now, but how long is going to sit on the shelf before we can react to anything because of these unknowns?" he said.
Berges said if renovations need to be made at the Law Enforcement Center, the county needs to be budgeting for those changes. For that reason, he said he supported paying for the full assessment.
The commissioners were given the option of a basic assessment or a full assessment. The commissioners voted to contract for the full assessment for $75,145. The contract was approved unanimously.
Half of the contract cost will be paid out of the contingency fund, and the other half will be paid out of the sheriff’s remaining 2023 operating budget authority.
The assessment can be started as soon as January and will take about six months to complete.