Members of the Marshall County Holding Company, Kent Borggren, John Zentz and Carol Brown, are the group that owns the County Jail and leases it to the county. On Monday they conducted their annual meeting in the County Building.
The first order of business was the election of officers. The motion was made to retain the same officers, Borggren as President, Zentz as Vice President and Brown as Secretary.
The Holding Company received a report from Sheriff Matt Hassel on the operations of the jail.
The sheriff said the jail population was 245 on Monday, 23 over the recommended population. Last year the jail had 1962 bookings, which equates to 5.4 people per day. The average stay was 20 days with the longest stay being 622 days and the average daily population of 209.8 or 87.7% of capacity.
Looking at 2017 there were 2296 bookings which averaged 6.3 per day with an average stay as 12 days. The longest stay was 831 days and the average daily population in 2017 was 152.6 or 63.5% of capacity.
The Sheriff said they keep level 6 felons for the Department of Corrections and are currently paid $35 per day and on July 1st that will increase to $37.50 this year and again in July of 2020 to $40 a day. He estimated about 20 level 6 felons currently serving in the jail. He also said he had 44 who are serving time in the county jail today.
Sheriff Hassel said structurally the jail facility is in great shape but the increased population puts additional stress on the building. In 2018 they had to replace 3 roof top air conditioners, replace the sewage grinder for $17,000 and replace three cell block windows. He said they completed an inspection of the heating system and made some minor repairs. Currently they are completing a study of the air conditioning system.
