Reduced need for jail cells affects McLeod, Carver counties

CARVER, McLEOD COUNTIES, MN – Minnesota counties have spent tens of millions of dollars building jail cells no one needs, and it’s affecting Carver and McLeod counties in different ways, the Star Tribune reported.

In the past five years, county boards have built modern jails that have added about 2,300 new beds to the state’s total, with more opening in the months to come. But they did so just as crime has plummeted, with 18,000 fewer arrests than five years ago.

The result is a fevered competition to help the jails pay for themselves by renting out empty beds for other counties’ inmates.

In counties across Minnesota, the price for taxpayers could be higher taxes, fewer services or both, the Star Tribune reported. In Carver County, for instance, though officials deny there’s a connection, a long-planned cutback in sheriff’s service to rural areas has arrived at the same moment as the county is about to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in inmate boarding fees, according to the Star Tribune.

Carver County will lose inmates because McLeod County no longer needs the extra room. This will mean a cost savings to McLeod, but a loss for Carver, the Star Tribune reported.

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