Parsons city commissioners on Monday discussed with Sheriff Darren Eichinger a doubling of the fee charged the city for housing city prisoners at the Labette County Jail.
The jail charges city of Parsons prisoners — those serving municipal court sentences or those held only on municipal charges — $50 a day per prisoner. This does not apply to inmates facing state charges through district court. The city’s jail charges will go up to $100 a day in March.
Sheriff Darren Eichinger and Jail Administrator Brian Harlow discussed the issue with city commissioners and Police Chief Robert Spinks at Monday’s commission meeting.
Eichinger said county commissioners cut his jail budget by $200,000, so he’s trying to make sure the operational costs of the jail are shared by users. Parsons by far houses more prisoners at the jail who are facing city charges, ranging from traffic charges to more serious misdemeanors.
In 2024, the city had 32 municipal prisoners incarcerated in the county jail. The longest stay for them was 52 days. The shortest stay was a day. The average stay was 13 days. Altamont and Chetopa had the next longest maximum stays of municipal prisoners, 27 days.
So far this year, the city had eight municipal prisoners. The longest stay so far was 48 days. The average stay is 12.5 days. The longest average stay from other municipalities for 2025 is Oswego with 1.8 days.
The sheriff’s office and jail tallied up the costs to run the jail and divided those costs by the average daily number of total inmates who stay at the jail, or 40, to get the cost per inmate of $109.
Commissioners initially reacted negatively to the news. Commissioner Kevin Cruse said a doubling of the cost of housing city inmates in the jail would be a difficult adjustment this early in the budget year. He said the city didn’t exist to supplement the sheriff’s budget.
Eichinger said that it’s not the county’s responsibility to pay for municipal prisoners either.
Cruse said he realizes that costs are going up, “But they ain’t going up at that amount.”
On top of the daily housing fee, the city also pays medical costs for its prisoners.
Mayor Verlyn Bolinger said he called around and found that Montgomery. County charges $55 a day; Neosho County charges $40 a day; Cherokee County charges $65 a day. He couldn’t see why the Labette County Jail was so much higher. Other cities in the county charge their municipal prisoners for housing.
Harlow said he didn’t know how those contracts were set up in the other counties. He said Labette does not charge other counties for housing their prisoners for short terms. Most of the prisoners may get returned to those counties in a day, sometimes more.
City Attorney Ross Albertini said as city prosecutor he tries to shorten sentences of municipal prisoners to save the police department money. Instead of sentencing someone to 30 days in jail for a charge, that person may get a five day term. He said the city could charge the city prisoners for their housing at the county jail, but most of the prisoners sent there are the ones who don’t pay court-related costs anyway.
Commissioner Leland Crooks said s shorter sentence is the only avenue to reduce city expenses for jail housing.
Harlow said jail staff also tries to communicate with the city about prisoners being held on state and city charges. When the state cases resolve, the inmate may remain on the city charge, thus resulting in a housing bill. Albertini and Spinks said the communication between the agencies is working well.
Commissioner. Tom Shaw said surely the county commission didn’t anticipate that cutting the jail budget would put a criminal back on the streets in a shorter time period. He called this an unintended consequence of budgeting.
Spinks told commissioners that he’s trying to keep prisoners out of the city lock up as well. He has changed the policy relating to certain people in custody who are evaluated under the policy guidance to determine if they will go to the city lock up or to the county jail. Those with health-related conditions or violent tendencies, among other issues, will go the county jail rather than keeping them in the city lockup.
Spinks said the move is to reduce the liability on the city. City commissioners are going to explore the possibility of housing city prisoners serving sentences at other county jails to save money.
In other matters, the city commission: — Agreed to close 14th Street from Broadway to Belmont, 15th from Appleton to Morton, Clark from 17th to 18th and the Marvel Park gates for the Labette Community College fire school on March 8 and 9.
— Heard that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Parsons will be March 15 beginning at 1 p.m. The route follows Central from Stevens to Main, Main east to 17th, 17th south to Broadway and Broadway west to Katy Drive.
— Agreed to purchase a high pressure air compressor for the fire department at a cost of $71,631 plus an annual maintenance contract for $1,200.
— Heard from Albertini that 22 applicants as of Monday had applied for the Parsons city manager position to be vacated in March when City Manager Debbie Lamb retires. The selection committee will meet March 3 to begin the review process.
— Heard a legislative update from Crooks. He said the state Legislature is on the hunt to cut expenses, following the lead of the federal effort led by a non-elected person, billionaire Elon Musk. He said he guaranteed that a big chunk of money the city relies on will dry up eventually. Money that funds the domestic violence unit likely will be on the chopping block. “And we need to figure out how we’re going to fund it and a lot of other things. And I think probably the half cent sales tax should go up this year to be voted on. We are going to feel some effects from what’s going on. … There are no guarantees right now. None whatsoever.”
