Jail overcrowding keeps El Paso County from hosting lucrative ICE detainees

El Paso County officials are discussing a move to reduce the jail population that could free up a few hundred beds at a time – potentially making room for paying customers.

Discussions about jail overcrowding at recent Board of County Commissioners meetings have touched on a little-known pitfall of having too many local inmates: lost revenue from once-lucrative detention contracts between the Sheriff’s Office and agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

From 2008 to 2015, ICE paid the county more than $11 million to house detainees – a windfall that has all but dwindled amid record-setting jail populations.

The county took in about $7,000 through August of this year, compared to a one-year high of nearly $2.7 million in 2009, Sheriff’s Office records show.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/12/jail-overcrowding-keeps-el-paso-county-from-hosting-lucrative-ice-detainees/