Many Missouri counties will not be reimbursed for state prisoners housed in their jails until 2018.
The Joplin Globe reports the Legislature set aside about $40,000,000 for the reimbursement program this year, but Karen Pojmann with the Department of Corrections says the state ran out of the allocated money catching up with back payments before the end of the fiscal quarter. Counties already pay a majority of prisoner housing costs.
The County Commissioners Association of Missouri says housing an inmate costs about $45 a day, and the state paid less than $21 a day last year.
Department of Corrections chief financial officer Susan Pulliam says the current funding levels and reimbursement schedule, combined with a pre-existing backlog of approved invoices, has resulted in a delay of paying newly approved invoices.
Requests are processed on a first-come, first-served basis and Pojmann says an audit of the reimbursement process which began last year found that faulty, duplicate and late requests have slowed the process.
A state task force will meet next month to review the reimbursement process.
