County Jail Lands Bigger Grant For Foreign Inmates

SEBRING - The Highlands County Sheriff's Office has received a $42,000 grant for alien inmate assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), which operates through the U.S. Department of Justice.

To receive the 2007 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAPP) award, the sheriff's office had to submit records detailing the number of inmates housed in the county jail from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006. Inmates had to be born outside of the United States or one of its territories, and have no documented claim of U.S. citizenship.

Funding was based upon the number of eligible criminal aliens that were housed as inmates for more than four days.

Although the numbers that the sheriff's office reported to the BJA were not available, as of Wednesday afternoon Sheriff Susan Benton said there were 69 inmates in the jail that were not born in the United States.

Benton said that this year's SCAAP award dollar amount was up from previous years, saying that the sheriff's office received approximately $21,000 in 2004, $14,000 in 2005, and $12,000 in 2006.

Sheriff's office spokeswoman Lisa McGehee said that there are a number of factors that go into determining the amount of money agencies receive.

"The reasons why we received more money stem from a combination of things including the fact that the requirements change every year," said McGehee. "Another could be that we've had more foreign inmates in our facility because of our (marijuana) growhouse efforts."

Although the sheriff office's current growhouse eradication campaign began after SCAAP's official reporting period, in November 2006, there were still a number of foreign inmates tied to drug activity in jail.

Where The Money Goes

On Dec. 6, the Highlands County Board of Commissioners approved a general budget amendment dictating how the SCAAP money would be distributed. Out of the total $42,369 the sheriff's office received, $30,000 will go to capital outlay projects, while $12,369 will go to operating expenses.

This year, one of SCAAP's requirements for funding was that agencies could only use the award for correctional purposes, so all of the money tied to the award will be used for jail purposes.

"In the past we could use the awards on things like law enforcement equipment (for the office) as a whole," said McGehee. "But we're not going to have that option with the current award."

McGehee said that the capital outlay projects could include things like upgrading jail security cameras and jail-related equipment, while the operating expenses could include lesser expenses like the costs of equipment maintenance.