GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Brown County Sheriff’s Office is looking for ways to deal with overcrowding in its county jail.
Sheriff John Gossage tells FOX 11 the jail is filled and with more inmates coming every day.
“First and foremost it’s the safety of my staff that are working in that facility, as well as the inmates that are in there, that is certainly a concern,” explained Gossage.
Gossage said because of the overcrowding, inmates have moved to other counties.
“Right now we have 40 inmates that are shipped out to another facility, that being Outagamie County that we contracted with to take care of our overflow inmates. We are currently at 92 percent with those 40 inmates out,” said Gossage.
Gossage added that sending those inmates out of Brown County is costly for taxpayers.
“I’ve budgeted $182,000, which was a conservative estimate for this year for contracting with other jails,” he said.
“At some point in time there is going to be a financial decision,” Brown County executive, Troy Streckenbach told FOX 11.
Streckenbach added that there are several options on the table, including expanding the current jail.
“If we don’t see a major change in terms of the population trend of what’s happening in the jail system, then we’ll be planning and looking to build an expansion on the jail,” Streckenbach said.
He added partnering with another county is also an option.
“We know that we have some jails that are being currently built in the area and the district, so there’s conversations on how to partner with other counties,” explained Streckenbach.
In two weeks the National Institute of Corrections is going to tour the Brown County Jail and then give suggestions to the county on what it can do to ease overcrowding.
“They may see something that they saw in another community that we’re not seeing right now, whether it’s an alternative to incarceration or another type of treatment course,” said Gossage.
The public will have a chance to voice their concerns at a town hall meeting. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 23 at 8:30 a.m. at the Brown County Jail.
