Casa Grande Dispatch
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors was wise to delay for three weeks termination of its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house federal detainees. At the same time, the board is absolutely correct in insisting on major changes. If those are not provided, the contract should be terminated.
Pinal is losing $2.5 million a year on the arrangement. That is about $50,000 a week. It is true that many Sheriff’s Office jobs are dependent on the contract, but Pinal taxpayers should not subsidize the federal government.
At the same time, two contracts have the county housing federal juvenile inmates for $60 and $80 a day while Gila County gets $134 from the U.S. Marshals Service for the same service. The Pinal contracts expire in 2014 and 2022. The county estimates the actual cost to house a juvenile is about $410 a day.
Previous attempts to get the federal government to renegotiate have been unsuccessful, but with one contract expiring next year, the county may have a chance.
County Manager Fritz Behring, with backing by the supervisors, is working on some difficult problems that affect county taxpayers — some going back quite a while. Resolving these will take more hard work, and, unfortunately, also some patience.
