Linn County Jail ends agreement with U.S. Marshals, begins agreement with Johnson County

CEDAR RAPIDS — For the first time in 40 years, the Linn County Jail is not housing federal inmates for the U.S. Marshals Service. The inmates were moved to other county jails in Iowa after the Marshals Service and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office were unable to reach an agreement on the cost to house the inmates.

The two agencies, which have had an agreement to house federal inmates in Cedar Rapids since the jail opened in 1984, began negotiating changes to their intergovernmental agreement in December 2022. Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner requested an increase in the per diem rate — the amount paid per prisoner per day, from $86 to $127. He said costs have gone up since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cost to house a federal inmate in fiscal year 2022 was $115 per day.

The Marshals Service offered a more modest increase, to $100 per day, noting that it would be the highest per diem rate in the district.

On Dec. 21, Gardner sent the Marshals Service a notice of intent to terminate the agreement if a deal could not be reached by Jan. 20. As of Monday, all federal inmates had been removed from the jail. The Marshals Service declined to say which jails are being used to house inmates, only that they are in eight other Iowa counties.

The agreement allowed the jail to house up to 125 federal inmates per day. Under the previous $86 per diem amount, the county would have been paid $3.92 million per year if it housed all 125 inmates every day. In fiscal year 2023, the Marshals Service paid the county $2.49 million.

Gardner said before he sent the notice of termination letter, the jail was housing about 30 federal inmates and he knew that the projected revenue from inmates was going to fall short of what was budgeted for the year.

Asked how the termination of the agreement may affect budgeting, Gardner said it’s unclear. He doesn’t anticipate any changes in staffing, although he said it’s possible some vacant positions at the jail will not be filled.

“Due to inmate classifications and housing assignments it takes roughly the same number of employees to run the jail, regardless of how full it is and whose inmates we are housing,” Gardner said. “While federal inmate numbers had decreased, the number of inmates charged with state crimes had increased over the years.”

Gardner said he is working on establishing new agreements with other law enforcement agencies that have expressed interest in housing inmates in Linn County. One of those agencies is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Gazette reached out to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeking confirmation that the organization is in talks with Linn County, but did not receive a response Wednesday.

Johnson County will send some inmates to Linn County Jail

Last week, the Linn County Supervisors approved an agreement with Johnson County to house inmates in the Linn County Jail at a $60 per diem rate. The agreement calls for that rate to increase by 4 percent each fiscal year.

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors approved the same 28E agreement on Dec. 28.

Col. Douglas Riniker, a chief deputy with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, told the Linn County Board of Supervisors that the reason the sheriff’s office agreed to the $60 rate despite asking for a higher rate from the U.S. Marshals Service is because the federal inmates are often high risk offenders who require higher security and more staff time, while Johnson County inmates will be lower-security offenders.

The agreement between the counties also stipulates that Johnson County will reimburse Linn County for any overtime Linn County incurs that is related to the cost of transporting or guarding a Johnson County inmate, a stipulation that was not part of the U.S. Marshals Service agreement.

“The Johnson County housing agreement requires them to pay all other costs associated with the housing of their prisoners, including medical, transportation and out of jail guarding services,” Gardner said Tuesday. “We have nine Johnson County inmates in custody today, with the understanding that more will likely follow.”

The Johnson County Sheriffs’ Office previously had agreements with departments in Lee, Henry and Clinton counties to house inmates that can’t be accommodated in the Johnson County Jail, which can only house 92 inmates.

Johnson County paid a $55 per diem rate to Clinton County, and a $50 per diem rate to Henry and Lee counties. Johnson County has stopped housing inmates in Lee and Clinton counties in favor of closer Linn County, but will continue its agreement with Henry County.

Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel told the Johnson County Board of Supervisors last month that beginning in FY 2025 — which starts July 1, 2024 — Henry County will increase its rate to $60.

Kunkel said housing inmates at the Linn County Jail would be easier than sending them to the Lee and Clinton counties’ jails, which are three- and four-hour round trips from the Johnson County Jail.

Kunkel estimated the cost for housing out-of-county inmates in the next fiscal year — with the Linn County agreement — would be about $438,000. The county spent about $331,000 housing inmates out of county in FY 2023, but Kunkel said that doesn’t include the money spent on gas and upkeep for transport vehicles, which will be reduced by housing inmates in a closer jail.

“There’s also a benefit to the person that’s in custody because it’s now allowing a lot more reasonable access for family, attorney access, those kinds of things, instead of having that person four hours away. Occasionally, we might have to run somebody back on short notice for court, and we can now accommodate that a lot easier, too,” Kunkel said during the December meeting.

“There’s also the reduced risk,” Kunkel said. “Every time somebody is on the road transporting an inmate, we’re open to risk. And if we can reduce the time and distance, it’s reducing the chances of an escape or an assault, or just a motor vehicle crash somewhere.”

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