A New Approach

State Regional Jail Authority Director Terry Miller is going to take a new approach when state lawmakers meet in regular session next year. Miller hopes to have a few strong pieces of proposed legislation to introduce that lower regional jail costs for counties. Miller says, in the past, lawmakers have been inundated with bills and some of those ideas weren't very good. "Sometimes there is legislation put forth that doesn't really save money, so we feel the prudent thing to do is to look at legislation that will really save money," Miller said. The Regional Jail Authority Director leads a cost containment group that meets regularly. "We're reviewing various types of legislation that will actually save incarceration costs," Miller said. Counties currently pay $47.53 a day for each inmate arrested in their county and housed in... [read full story]