The county may need to open its budget in the future to make changes to the commissary budget at the jail.
Seward County Detention Center Director Maria Hatfield said a misunderstanding in an email caused the commissary budget to be cut from $110,000 to $50,000.
The jail commissary provides necessities like food, hygiene products and clothing for inmates to buy.
The commissary is not funded through taxpayer dollars, Hatfield said, but rather from inmate purchases. But what the inmates spend needs to be budgeted in order for the county to spend it.
Hatfield brought the issue to the Seward County Commissioners’ attention during the board’s Nov. 7 meeting.
Last year, Hatfield said an average of 12 inmates a day spent around $23,000 in commissary. Now that the county is housing out-of-county inmates, it averages 20 inmates each day.
“We’ve increased quite a bit,” Hatfield said.
Because the budget is based on what the inmates spend, Hatfield said it’s hard to know exactly how much should be budgeted.
“It’s really a guessing game,” Hatfield said.
She added that it’s possible the jail won’t go over the $50,000 that’s budgeted. But if it gets close, the county will need to open the budget and increase the commissary amount.
County Clerk Sherry Schweitzer said opening the budget requires advertising in the newspaper and a public hearing.
