The Putnam County Jail seeing an increase in medical costs after the expansion from last summer.
Sheriff Eddie Farris told the Putnam County Commission Tuesday night that the facility is spending about $30,000 more per month than it did before the addition. Farris said the increase is in line with what his department had been expecting as part of the new space.
“What’s really getting us is the HIV meds,” Farris said. “We’re spending about $10,000 a month on HIV meds. We sort of projected forward so we’re okay right now. The good news is we’re tracking about ten percent below budget, but just wanted to update you on that.”
Some of these costs could be offset by the income from housing federal inmates, which Farris said there are about forty of in the jail right now. Farris said the plan is to get more in the future but the number of federal inmates across Middle Tennessee is down right now.
“They’re giving us all that really they can send our way,” Farris said. “They’re all pretrial. They’re not sentenced inmates so right now they’re just down.”
Farris said the jail is currently holding about four hundred inmates in total. Farris said federal inmates bring in seventy-five dollars for each day they are housed in the county jail.
“We have agreed for a hundred and ten beds on the federal side,” Farris said. “And then actually another thirty for the immigration side of it.”
In other business, the commission voted to add Creekside Drive to the county road list. Commissioners also voted in favor of several appointments and re-appointments: Jeff Jones as Delinquent Tax Attorney for 2023’s property taxes, Paul Swallows to the Audit Committee, Stacey Blackmon to the E-911 Emergency Communications Board, and Commissioners Kathy Dunn, Cathy Reel, and County Clerk Wayne Nabors to the Awards Committee.
