By Jay Stephenson
Valley City Times-Record

Seven counties slated to help fund a new multi-county jail in Barnes County wouldn’t have the cash to maintain the facility as was first envisioned back in 2004.
That’s the conclusion Valley City Commissioner Jon Wagar and Valley City-Barnes County Development Corporation Director Jennifer Feist have drawn and said at a meeting held concerning the Sheyenne Valley Multi-county Correctional Center last Friday with representatives from all seven counties. The original plan for the jail was to encompass Barnes, Dickey, Griggs, LaMoure, Ransom, Sargent, and Steele counties.
“It isn’t where we want it to be at this point,” Wagar said, pointing out that if a new jail isn’t built and the Barnes County jail closes, the seven counties would “be at the mercy of higher rates” from housing inmates at other county facilities.
When the project was first discussed in 2004 as an 80-bed facility, costing around $5 million, North Dakota had different needs and a different jail population than it does today. A facility today would cost around $8 million, Wagar said, and the likelihood of housing state prisoners is lower today than it was in 2004.
“In 2004, the Department of Corrections at the state level clearly articulated the plan and said we’re going to do it,” Wagar said. “Since then, it’s become somewhat clear that the state is focusing on a large centralized ultra-efficient facility, either the one they got remodeled or a new facility near Bismarck.”
A recently built correctional facility in Rugby that served as a model for the Sheyenne Valley Multi-County Correctional Facility has also influenced possible funding for a new correctional facility in Barnes County.  Plagued by financial problems and a lack of inmates, the Rugby correctional facility is struggling financially. Wagar said the United States Department of Agriculture recently withdrew its financial commitment as the Sheyenne Valley facility’s primary lender because of the failures of the Rugby facility.
 The facility in Barnes County was originally planned to house 80 prisoners, but if it costs $8 million as estimated, it would have a financial shortfall of nearly $1.3 million from revenues coming in from all seven counties, according to Feist.  Even a facility that houses 37 prisoners costing $5 million would have a financial shortfall of nearly $700,000, Feist said, based on paying personnel and maintaining the facility.Both Feist and Wagar contend the current Barnes County Jail remains more of a financial liability to Barnes County than an asset. Feist also said the economic data presented at the meeting needs to be further studied.
Wagar says the seven counties have three options: one is to not build a new facility at all; the second option would be to find another facility that would be willing to house inmates from the seven counties either individually or collectively; and the third option would be to scale the project back to less than what was envisioned in 2004.
Wagar recently visited a small county facility in Anaconda, Mont., that he says could possibly work as a model for what could be built in Barnes County.
Plans for another meeting to receive further feedback from the seven counties is tentatively set for January 2008.