COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County Administration and Finance Committee met Tuesday and discussed updating an intake policy for the Richland County jail.
"We need to update our policy to make sure that these intergovernmental agreements are actually happening," said councilman Bill Malinowski.
What is called the "inmate per diem" policy was first enacted in 2016 in the county's general fund budget. The original policy stated, that the jail would charge other counties a certain amount per day to house an inmate. This policy was updated in 2018 to charge those other counties $71 per day, per inmate. With that amount increasing by $10 every July 1 that the inmate is there.
According to Malinowski, there are flaws in the system and the full contractual agreement has not been happening, which has caused taxpayers to foot the bill.
"We need to be making sure we're not charging costs that are from 4 and 5 years ago, but current costs," Councilman Malinowski stated.
Although the committee did not vote on the policy, they did make it a point of discussion to make sure these contracts are happening at the detention center.
The new Detention Center Director, Tyrell Cato said he had no comment comment on the policy reminder at this time.
When he was introduced at the last county council meeting on July 19, he laid out this plan for solving ongoing issues inside the jail.
"We want to move our detention center from the bottom 10 to the top 10, and we are only going to do that through teamwork, out of the box thinking, and working with the community," Cato explained.
When asked if the policy agreement was part of this plan, he said it is not, but will be implemented no matter what the county decides.
The committee did not vote on the policy on in Tuesday's meeting but will look at it again at a later date.