Etowah County Jail still facing potential loss of ICE detainees (MyFoxAL.com)

Etowah County Jail still facing potential loss of ICE detainees
Posted: Mar 28, 2011 7:13 PM EDT Updated: Mar 28, 2011 7:13 PM EDT
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The Etowah County jail is still facing the possibility of losing all of its inmates from the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who are currently housed in the jail. The government pays the county on a per-inmate, per-day basis, and would lose that money if ICE decides to cut their own costs by moving the inmates out of Etowah County.

The move has been delayed once, but it could still happen June 30, said Sheriff Todd Entrekin. If the ICE detainees are taken out of the Etowah County jail, that could mean layoffs at the jail, loss of grant money and other jobs in parts of the sheriff's office.

"It would affect our funds as far as our school resource officers, courthouse security, our trash pickup out on the streets. It affects everything," Entrekin said.

The decision to move the ICE detainees has not been finalized, however, and Entrekin says he believes he can make a case to show that keeping the detainees in Etowah County will actually save the federal government money.