CLINTON COUNTY, Ind. – Clinton County Sheriff Rich Kelly announced to members of the Clinton County Council on Tuesday he has placed a freeze on hiring new merit deputies and correctional officers pending the County Commissioners action on a planned revised nepotism ordinance that would remove his wife, Ashley Kelly, as jail matron.
“The pause has to be created due to the fact the funds that are gonna fund that possibly won’t be there in the future due to the fact that the nepotism policy in place [might change],” said Sheriff Kelly after the meeting.
The funding Sheriff Kelly mentions is money paid by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to the Clinton County Federal Inmate Housing Fund for the housing of federal inmates in addition to money received from the Indiana Department of Correction (IDC) for housing state inmates.
Federal inmates held in the Clinton County jail generate yearly revenue approaching $1.5 million plus an additional $500,000 received from the IDC. The IDC pays the county a yearly amount that breaks down to approximately $37.50 per inmate/per day, while the Federal program payment equates to $68 per inmate/per day plus reimbursement for medical and transport.
Every three years the agreement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons can be renegotiated – and is coming up for talks later in 2022. The State pays based on an average yearly population with an amount set on a yearly basis.
“Our responsibility to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the US Marshals, US Attorney, [is] to be able to provide adequate staff and… an office manager – a person that takes care of that,” explained Sheriff Kelly. “If that person is removed, that’s not a job that I can just hire off the street. That is a job where I have to have 100% trust in the person that’s doing it.”
“The 100% availability at 24-hours a day [to take a] phone call from the US Marshals office or from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. And, that is not something that I take lightly.”
Clinton County Council President Alan Dunn was asked what potential impact the loss of the Federal inmate housing program would have on the county’s budget.
“Well, that’s something we’ll get into a lot more next week as we read through the budget for the first time,” said Dunn. “I’m not sure it’s appropriate to talk about now. There’s a lot of other discussions going on between the Sheriff’s camp and the county leadership.”
“And so I think those talks need to play out and, and, you know, I think the Sheriff’s right, it could have an impact on the budget and it could have, it could be not just one direction either. So let’s, let’s see how those talks play out. Let’s see what the budget looks like next week as we get into it and see what we can, what we can figure out.”
The County Council will hold budget hearings on August 16 while the next County Commissioners meeting is set for August 22.
