Monongalia County Commission Details Systemic Flaws in Jail Bill Tracking

A coalition of counties auditing jail bills found that the inmate tracking process is antiquated and prone to errors. The coalition noted issues such as multiple counties paying for the same inmate and failures to track an inmate from conviction through to the state prison system. Tom Bloom, Commission President for Monongalia County, stated that these errors resulted in bills being 10 to 30 percent incorrect, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The coalition contends that the state operates three separate systems—the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, circuit courts, and magistrate courts—without a uniform management structure. The county receives bill information via fax, and one commission reported receiving 500 pages of bill information in a single two-week period.