Carroll County Sheriff, Ken Pingrey, says the inmate population at the county jail has been much higher since the new facility opened earlier this year, but the vast majority are prisoners from out of the county. According to Pingrey, a prisoner census from Monday, July 11 shows that 70 percent of people incarcerated at the jail are not Carroll County residents. Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
Pingrey adds his office collected nearly $44,000 in room-and-board fees alone in the year’s second quarter. At that pace, the jail could bring in as much as $176,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, which he says is a significant increase from FY21.
Some of that additional revenue will be used to offset the cost of additional staff for the 30-plus-bed facility. Pingrey says they also have the added benefit of housing relatively low-maintenance prisoners outside the county.
However, Pingrey notes that a larger inmate population also means an increase in behavior-related incidents. Since opening in February, the Carroll County jail has recorded an average daily population of about 24 prisoners. State and federal requirements capped the old jail’s population to 14 inmates.