U.S.-County Jail Plan Falters Over Finances : Government: Five months of negotiations end when U.S. marshal’s office, county sheriff fail to agree on rates.

A proposal to house federal inmates in three county jails was scuttled for good Friday when officials from the county and the U.S. marshal’s office could not agree upon a financing plan, San Diego County Sheriff Jim Roache said.

“We could not reach a mutually satisfactory resolution, and therefore, we must pursue other alternatives,” Roache said. “I’m meeting with my staff and county staff to pursue other options. The negotiations are over.”

The county had offered nearly 700 beds from three of its jails for the U.S. marshal’s office to use for federal prisoners for about $20 million a year. The Sheriff’s Department would use the money to open and operate two brand-new jail facilities in East Mesa.

But the two sides could not agree upon what the U.S. government should pay the county for housing its inmates at two of the three jails. Roache would not discuss how much the rates differed, other than to say the difference was “substantial.”

The county approached the U.S. marshal’s office in May with a plan to lease out some of its beds and negotiations proceeded slowly.

At one point, U.S. Marshal Richard Cameron was so frustrated in dealing with Rich Robinson, the county’s special project coordinator, that Cameron chose to deal directly with Roache and his staff, according to Robinson and Cameron.

Although both sides agreed upon where the prisoners would be housed and the medical treatment and other services they should receive, the financial agreement was stalled because accountants in Washington would not agree to the county’s financial arrangement for leasing the space.

The County Board of Supervisors had requested the the Sheriff’s Department tell it Oct. 15 when the East Mesa jails are to be open, how they will be staffed and where the money to operate them will come from.

“Our necks were quite a way out on this,” Robinson said. “The opening of East Mesa relates to funding and staffing, and is tied to the (lease agreement). We were caught in a paper exchange between here and Washington, D.C. on per diem costs and reimbursement.”

Unable to wait any longer for the federal government to decide on a financing plan, Roache gave the U.S. marshal’s office until noon Friday to make a decision.

Members of Roache’s staff spent Friday afternoon with officials in Washington trying to work out an agreement. Five months of negotiation came to an end.

The prospects for raising other money to open East Mesa, considering the county’s budget problems, are dim, sheriff’s officials said. Robinson said the county had been relying heavily on the lease payments to get a 512-bed medium security jail open by November and a 1,500-bed maximum security jail open by December.

Roache said he is disappointed though not depressed by Friday’s events.

“I would have hoped it could have worked out,” he said. “It didn’t work. You never know when you enter into discussions what will happen. There’s always a chance that you will not be able to strike a mutually satisfactory agreement.”

Cameron of the U.S. marshal’s office said that, as far as he knew, the negotiations were still proceeding, although a financial agreement was still a problem.