Bent County Sheriff Jake Six is overdrawn on the county inmate account. He told County Commissioners in a public meeting, “We lose track.” Explaining that the inmate account is controlled by the County Treasurer and the Commissioners, Six says they don’t know how much money is in the account, ever.
The nearly hour-long discussion between the Bent County Sheriff and the Commissioners started off with Chair Jean Sykes telling Six that his overdrawn inmate account is concerning. She asked Six to explain why he received a letter stating he was no longer allowed to spend from the account. Sykes outed her frustration stating they’ve talked to him before about spending and the budget. She asked how the Sheriff’s office is moving forward to fix the problem.
Sheriff Six explained they fired the person who ran that account six months ago and they try to track expenses based on their expenses and what they should be receiving in the inmate account.
Just keeping track isn’t their only problem, according to Sheriff Six. He explained to the board that two years ago, 36 IPads were broken and had to be replaced, and they’re still working on paying that off. One of the many reasons the account is overdrawn.
Commissioner Kim MacDonnell added, “far far more expenditures were made out of the account than monies that were available and some of those monies were the property of the men and women held in the Bent County jail over however much time, it’s it’s highly concerning.”
Six says one of his staff is trying to reconcile the statement and they typically keep about $5,000 in the account they hold for inmates for commissary. And, they have a plan moving forward.
Six explained that they make a lot of money on commissary, in fact, they made a lot of money on chewing tobacco, Six says in fact, nearly 68 percent of it went to the jail remodel.
“Why would you do that?” Jean Sykes exclaimed.
Kim MacDonnell asked how is that money, expenditure an appropriate expenditure from the inmate account?
Sheriff Six answered it’s for safety and security of the inmates.
Kim asked him to clarify if he was using inmate funds for a capital project expense. Six answered that he asked the commissioners first for the money to fix the jail but decided it needed to be done and they would just do it themselves.
Six added that commissioners waited to fix the jail after an escape and he felt it needed to be done fast to avoid another escape.
“I remembered touring and saying let’s get it done.” Skyes said.
Six said for the security of the inmates they needed to fix the jail fast.
There was a difference of opinion about approach on the project. MacDonnell added. “A lot of the breakdown at least in my opinion on the project was the push from the Sheriff’s department, the Sheriff’s office to move forward with work that had not yet been defined, that we didn’t all have a clear understanding of what was going to happen when, what was scope and sequence, we asked time and again for somebody to be able to tell us which things were absolute immediate needs and which things could be phased because we knew this was going to be a huge cost, all of those things were factors in the decision making.” “The issue we’re talking about today isn’t what work was done when” MacDonnell said they are trying to talk about the misuse of funds from the inmate account to do things that don’t fall under that account. MacDonnell told him that he circumvented the commissioners to use money from an account he was not authorized to use to complete a project doing it his way.
Six says historically money from the inmate account has been used to fix the jail, he mentioned talking to former Bent County Sheriff David Encinias to confirm it.
CNYW reached out to Encinias to ask about whether or not that phone call happened and Encinias tells us that it did not. "the inmate funds are dedicated to the offenders for their hygeine, their clothing, their bedding, their blankets. It's not expenditures to fix the facility it's just directly for the offenders, period." He furthers that he never used the inmate account to fix the jail.
Keeping it from being a kitchen sink type fight, MacDonnell asked Chair Skyes if the conversation could be kept to just the issue that brought them to ask for the conversation with Sheriff Six, the alleged misuse of funds from the inmate account.
Despite this request, other issues brought up by Sheriff Six, the inability to see when his employees clock in and out and that there is no certification to operate the drone that the Sheriff’s office purchased.
Getting back to the original topic, “That’s a problem, that’s a huge problem,” MacDonnell again added, the inmate account had over $90,000 and now its overdrawn. Family members contribute to it for their loved ones in jail to be able to buy things, and she stated she believe that bail might also be deposited into that account.
“We do not know whose money has been overspent from this account.”
“I’m tired of fighting over everything, … every time we come here it’s a fight or a necessity,” Six ended but added, “Yes, I’m ready for two new commissioners to sit in the chair because I think it will make life easier.”
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Oh goodness. What a mess.
Thank you Anne for your leadership in honest journalism!