Jail Population Down Due To Government Shutdown

Crawford County Sheriff Darin Layman said the partial government shutdown that ended in late January lowered the jail population.

As of February 19, there were 95 inmates and 16 were federal inmates. 

The jail relies on reimbursement from federal inmates and Gasconade County to provide revenue. Layman said with the shutdown, there wasn’t as much movement.

“But we’re on top of it,” he said.

New Hires

With the county realizing more than $900,000 in rollovers from the past few years, Layman has gone to work utilizing the money to fill out his staff.

He announced Tuesday that he has hired a new road deputy and two employees at the jail.

“We are getting new applications daily that we haven’t had in the past,” Layman said. “A large part of that is seeing that increase.”

Jail Roof

While Layman contends with HVAC malfunctions, he now has a new problem to worry about: a leaking roof.

He told commissioners Tuesday that Brad Dicus, the head of maintenance, is seeking bids to fix the leak. The department also will explore seeing what it costs to fix the whole roof.

“It’s almost a 20-year-old roof,” he said.

According to Layman, Dicus is working on a maintenance plan for the jail. They are laying out objectives to complete over a one, three and five-year term.

“We’ll see where we’re at,” Layman said.

As reported in last week’s issue of the Independent News, the HVAC replacement at the jail is still planned for later this year. Layman said Tuesday that Dicus is still focused on the project and speaking with engineers.