By C1 Staff
MANNINGTON TWP. — The Salem County Jail could be getting an expansion to house more inmates from neighboring counties and bring in more revenue.
NJ.com reports that Sheriff Charles Miller estimated that the county is losing $7 million in revenue by not being able to house inmates from Gloucester County.
Salem and Gloucester have an agreement where Salem would house 200 of Gloucester’s inmates for $83 a head a day. It’s estimated that Salem County has already received $8.1 million from Gloucester County so far.
But an expansion that would bring the jail up from 400 beds to 780 would allow Salem to accept even more inmates, as well as between 80 and 100 federal inmates.
Salem would receive $100 a day per federal inmate; Miller says they don’t put much stress on the facility since they aren’t coming and going.
The jail was not originally built to be a two-county facility, and stress is beginning to show in the jail’s intake area.
Still, with how successful the agreement with Gloucester County has been, officials are looking to potentially bring in another county agreement to house more inmates if the expansion goes through.