April 30 of 2014, the Escambia County jail suffered a tragic natural gas explosion killing two inmates and injuring 180 people. Since then, Santa Rosa County’s continued assisting its neighbor to the west by taking extra inmates from Escambia. Monday, Sheriff Wendell Hall spoke before the Santa Rosa County Board of County Commissioners on a budget amendment asking for nearly $1.5 million, mostly to handle the additional load. The request Hall made noted Escambia County would reimburse the cost.
The exact figure to cover these cost, Hall said, was $1,348,000. The additional $150,000 was included in the budget amendment for capital improvements on the Santa Rosa Sheriff’ Office’s communications center to replace outdated equipment.
The night of the initial accident, Hall said, “We had over 200 that were brought to us to help out Escambia. We were very happy to do so.” Hall said the jail housed in the 400 range of inmates.
Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Rich Aloy said, “We’re managing it. The folks in detention are top notch. At times we’re at capacity at the jail. When we’re at that point or near, we’ll start sending to other jails. We quickly accommodated (Escambia County) in every way possible and did so without problems or delays.”
During Monday’s meeting, Hall said Escambia’s numbers have fluctuated downward.
“Today we have 95. They’ve done a lot of things to reduce the population. They’ve moved some of their inmates…They moved some to Walton County, the ones that are being sentenced to time in Escambia County jail.” He also said they house the ones awaiting trial since SRC is closer than Walton County.
Hall said, “Over that period of time, when you have more mouths to feed and more inmates to provide medical expense for all those (costs) go up.” Medical services, transportation, booking staff, food, janitorial, all of these costs naturally rose.
Additional booking staff, Hall said, was necessary. However, he said even after Escambia takes its prisoners back, they may keep the additional staff. He said, “It’s getting more and more difficult. We always have open positions in our jail now because of the demand on correction officers in this particular area.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: SRSO asks for $1.5 million for Escambia County