Despite a nationwide increase in the number of illegal immigrants being incarcerated thanks to what U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) calls “heightened strategic enforcement efforts,” the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail doesn’t seem to have a problem.
Though ICE has its own detention facilities, these arrests initially become the responsibility of the localities where the undocumented workers are first arrested and detained, thus adding to a local jail’s costs of day to day operations.
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The Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail rarely detains more than five illegal immigrants a month. |
At the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, alien inmates are few and far between. “It varies slightly from month to month, but it’s rarely over five,” says Tom Robinson, the jail’s business manager.
In the first nine months of 2008, the local jail detained 15 illegal immigrants that ICE was interested in.
A federal program provides money to all those localities that incur added costs for incarcerating and detaining criminal aliens.
“I think last year I ended up receiving approximately $30,000 total between the three jurisdictions to help offset alien incarceration,” says Robinson. “But that’s a drop in the bucket if you talk about a $12 or $13 million budget. We appreciate it, I am not going to kick it to the curb.”
This year, the city has appropriated $7,118, Nelson County $7,451 and Albemarle $34,141, for a total of $48,710. Robinson says a daily per diem rate is established between the jail and the federal government to help offset inmate costs. This year, he says, the rate is $38 per day.
“So we bill ICE in addition to the grant and they pay a certain amount each month,” he says. “Between the two entities, it eliminates the cost of those inmates from the localities’ point of view.”
Robinson says that more and more local governments and jails are participating in the program “because they see aliens starting to materialize in their judicial system.” This development, however, could lead to decreased grant amounts in the future.
“The pie was a certain size eight or nine years ago,” he says. “The amount we get each year is going to shrink.”
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