By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON, W.Va. – Seeing the daily cost of housing an inmate jump by $12 is leading to a special Mercer County Commission meeting Thursday about how to keep the county’s regional jail bill paid until the fiscal year ends this July.
The Mercer County Commission’s special meeting starts at 2 p.m., Thursday at the county courthouse. The commission will discuss the regional jail bill for April 2025 and the Glenwood Lake Dredging Project.
Last March, the West Virginia Regional Jail system was holding 163 Mercer County inmates. In April, there were 129 county inmates. The daily cost of keeping each inmate started growing in April when an increase the Legislature passed in March 2023 went into effect, County Commission President Bill Archer said Tuesday.
“Because of the increases, the jail bill has gone up astronomically,” Archer said.
In March, the county’s jail bill was $127,474.81. By April, it had grown to $146,985.60, according to county records.
“So it’s just been climbing constantly and we’re having to look at some of the potential other funds in order to be able to do it,” Archer said.
