Missouri’s local jails are paid $24.95 per day for each inmate they hold before eventually going to a state prison. A Missouri House committee could vote soon on a bill that would raise the daily reimbursement rate to a minimum of $40, beginning in July 2026.
Rep. Donnie Brown, R-New Madrid, is the bill sponsor. He said last year was the first time since 1997 that the jails received a rate increase from the state.
“This is just really a problem, especially for our small counties,” Brown told the Missouri House Corrections and Public Institutions Committee on Thursday. “They’re having to make decisions on taking deputies off of the street in order to make up these jail costs. And I know we’ve got a huge emphasis this year on public safety. I mean, this is some money we could get back to the counties that would instantly put officers out on the streets.”
As a cost-cutting move, he said his county took five police officers off the streets last year.
“We’re a 600 square mile county, so we have times where we have one officer covering 600 square miles. You can’t do it. The criminals know that. They know that we have one officer trying to watch all that area. My county had to close their jail about four years ago, so they have to take their prisoners to another county, which now that one officer, if he arrests somebody, has to go 45 miles to another county. So now we’ve got nobody watching,” said Brown.
The cost to house an inmate in a Missouri prison is about $100 per day. Is $40 an adequate rate to pay local jails? Rep. Bill Faulkner, R-St. Joseph, said no.
“We can’t keep straddling our sheriff’s department and our police departments that share jail time, valuable resources like this. It’s costing my district some decisions that we don’t like to make, or they don’t like to make,” said Faulkner.
Brown said his bill simply sets the daily rate at a minimum of $40 but he’s open to making changes. The daily reimbursement rate would be subject to the Missouri Legislature’s approval.
The Missouri Senate has passed a similar version. Sen. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, is proposing to change the daily reimbursement rate to a maximum of $37.50.
Pulaski County Sheriff Stacy Ball told the House committee that most of the inmates in his jail are violent offenders who should not be on the streets.
“If I’m not holding 70 prisoners, I’m losing money. I can house 150 inmates,” he said. “I’m averaging, right now, 50-55 inmates in my jail. Roughly 75% of my inmate population has a mental health issue.”
Chris Johnson, the Oregon County jail administrator, said he supports the bill.
“Once they come to us, we do everything for them,” said Johnson. “And we have such a repeat business in the Ozarks down there. So we do the best we can with what we can, but that increase to the $40, or minimum to 40, would have a huge impact for what we do.”
No one spoke in opposition to House Bill 170.
The committee could soon vote to advance the legislation.
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