Sheriff snags federal grant

MONTROSE — For the second year in a row, the Montrose County Sheriff's Office snagged a federal grant to help offset the costs of housing inmates who are in the county illegally.

The U.S. Department of Justice awarded $67,190 to the county as part of the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program for fiscal year 2007-2008.

The grant was based on illegal alien inmate numbers from 2006-2007, Montrose County Jail Administrator Jim Gerlach said.

Gerlach did not have those numbers available Friday.

The cost per day for housing alien inmates is $55. A contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provides compensation to the county. The SCAT grant takes the payments ICE already made into consideration and usually deducts that from the grant amount.

"They come and go," Gerlach said of inmates who are here illegally. "Daily, we don't have as many as we get on those grants. ... Obviously, everybody's not approved and that's why you'll turn in numbers that are not always the number that's granted. They won't pay us twice."

The jail holds illegal immigrants who are suspected of committing crimes in the local jurisdiction. Local law enforcement does not specifically seek out illegal immigrants and arrest them on that basis alone, as this is the federal government's job.

"When we get any person that was not born in the United States, we will call immigration upon their arrest," Gerlach said. "Immigration and Customs Enforcement will come and interview them and determine if they're legally here or not. They (ICE) will set up the deportation procedure."

Inmates have to answer to their local charges and, if convicted, must serve whatever sentence is imposed on those charges before being deported. They may not illegally re-enter the U.S. Doing so constitutes a separate federal offense and, in most cases, results in federal prison time upon conviction.

Montrose County was able to secure its SCAT grants by contracting with Justice Benefits, Inc., of Dallas, which handled the complicated paperwork and also actively seeks out lesser-known grants to benefit the sheriff's agency. The company takes a 22 percent fee from the grant awarded.

"It's great we can work with JBI because they spend a lot of time and resources we don't have to collect these federal funds for us," Sheriff Rick Dunlap said in a news release from the county.

Gerlach said the grant itself was very helpful. "It's extremely rewarding to us because of our inability to collect funds for those inmates and the time spent by the detention center and local law enforcement."