U.S. Releases Disputed Jail Costs to States

The Justice Department released $495 million Thursday to partly reimburse states and municipalities for the costs of imprisoning illegal immigrants, with half the money going to California and $12.8 million set aside for Los Angeles County’s overcrowded jails.

The grants fall far short of the complete reimbursement that California Gov. Pete Wilson and others have demanded but federal officials said that the 60% reimbursement rate is a significant increase over last year’s 16%.

California will receive $252 million and counties within the state will receive separate awards.

“There’s no doubt about it, $12.8 million in a very difficult budget is significant,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block. “Jail beds are a finite resource. We are forced to release many people early. These beds being occupied by illegals compounds our problem.”

In Sacramento, Wilson said the funds are long overdue and a first step in reimbursing California taxpayers for $511 million that he estimates the state paid last year to incarcerate 200,000 criminal aliens.

To provide the money, federal officials are reaching back to the 1986 immigration reform law, which authorized that states be compensated for the cost of imprisoning illegal immigrants. For years, however, no funds were appropriated under the program.

Linda McCay, the Justice Department official in charge of the program, said the 1996 total is “a fairly big chunk of change.”

At her weekly news conference, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno called the awards an important step toward complete federal responsibility for the jailing costs of illegal immigrant felons.

“We have more work to do but we have made real progress and our task now is to build on that progress,” Reno said. “We will continue to expedite deportations and removals, and we will work together with Congress to increase the funding to ensure complete reimbursement for the states.”

Reno, a former Florida prosecutor, said she understands the frustration of local officials burdened with costs that should be paid by the federal government. Besides compensation to the states, Reno said, the administration is pursuing quicker deportation proceedings to reduce the presence of criminal aliens in the nation’s jails and prisons.

Wilson argues that, if California were relieved of these costs, the state could build and operate a prison for 2,300 criminals, put more than 2,600 California Highway Patrol officers on the road and provide drug rehabilitation programs for 10,000 inmates.

Besides California, the reimbursement money goes to 48 other states, the District of Columbia, three territories and 3,000 local jurisdictions with jail facilities. No other state came close to California’s award, with New York receiving $62.8 million, Texas $53.5 million and Florida $17.9 million. New York City received $15.5 million, the largest award to a locality.

To qualify, applicants had to submit a detailed accounting of the immigration status of their inmates. After calculating the estimated cost per state and county for keeping illegal immigrants behind bars, the Justice Department divided the available money by offering all eligible parties 59.78% of their requests.