Riley County Law Board, May 17, 2010
Bob Kruh, Observer

Present: Casper, Kearns, McCulloh, Morris-Hardeman, Sherow, Snead, Urban, Wilkerson

Chairman Snead withdrew from the Board in view of his major time commitment to the office of mayor, and City Commissioner Sherow was sworn in. The Board elected Jamie Morris-Hardeman as chair and Karen McCulloh as vice chair.

Trent Armbrust reported on the emerging activities of the newly constituted Community Advisory Board, noting its intent to gain input from the community, to increase community awareness of the RCPD’s activities, and to serve as a sounding board to the department.

Consultant Steve Rothlein, a veteran of 30 years on the Miami-Dade Police Department, reported on his recent review of the RCPD’s Internal Affairs Division, a group that handles complaints about police activities. He made a number of laudatory comments and presented recommendations for adjustments in operations, concluding with the assignment of an overall grade of A+, a rating he’d never previously given.

The Board heard a report on the jail population, which has consistently been over 100 for the current year, now averaging 125. At the current rate, bookings for 2010 might rise to nearly 5,000, where they’ve previously been in the 3,000s. Given the need to segregate certain categories of prisoners, all of the capacity may not be totally used at times – 109 spaces for males and 18 for females. It was surmised that recent increases are partly due to increased sentencing and to inmate’s lessened ability to bond out prior to trial. The pre-sentencing inmates comprise about 75% of the jail population on average.

Anticipating its final FY2011 budget recommendation to be made next month, the Board discussed several elements, noting the desirability of adding the corrections officers to staff the jail expansion, the need to avoid personnel reductions, and the hope that the decision can be held off as long as possible in order to gain more information on likely revenues. There was some hesitancy to consider increases in the personnel budget, except for health insurance costs. Kearns was especially concerned that the COs be added as soon as possible in order to assess the function of the new facility, now under a one-year warranty period beginning in April 2010.