By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
After making comments regarding transgender inmates during a budget meeting last week, Ellis County Commissioner Dean Haselhorst offered a statement on his comments at Monday’s commission meeting.
“At Thursday’s budget meeting, I did make some comments in the context of the jail budget that came out a little different than intended,” Haselhorst said. “If my comments offended, madam chair and my fellow commissioner Marcy (McClelland) and the residents of Ellis County, I do apologize for my comments.”
“I want to be clear that I do not advocate violence against any of our jail inmates for any purpose,” he added.
At issue is the need to separate some inmates, including transgender persons, from the general jail population. The county will often house those inmates out of county and pay to do so.
Ellis County Sheriff Ed Harbin told the commission at Thursday’s budget meeting the county has been spending $15,000 per month to house inmates out of county. Although Harbin said Tuesday, they are starting to see that number decline.
Harbin has budgeted $140,000 to house inmates out of county in 2018.
They also budget more money to spend on health services for inmates that are housed at other facilities. The Ellis County jail contracts with a medical service for the inmates within the county facility but, if they are housed elsewhere, the county might have to cover an inmate’s medical expenses.
In the comments he has now apologized for, Haselhorst asked the sheriff, “Can’t you inform them what gender they are when they show up?
“You have a taser and a gun. I think you have some influence,” he said.
Haselhorst said he is concerned about the special populations that force the county to house inmates out of the county.
“I would really love to be able to increase our spending on many of our outside agencies that do very valuable work in our county,” said Haselhorst “It just really, really, really upsets me, galls me, whatever word we’d like to use that instead we have to continue increasing our expenditures on the jail housing.”
Harbin said Tuesday they have had two transgender inmates in the last six to nine months.
“They don’t go into general population and, because of us not having space here to keep them, we house them out of county in a place that does have the room,” he said.
Transgender inmates are often sent to the Trego County jail in WaKeeney or the Ford County jail in Dodge City. But Ellis County also houses inmates in other facilities for a variety of reasons.
Harbin said overcrowding is a big reason for sending inmates to other counties. The ratio to men to women also has an effect on the number of out-of-county inmates. If there are not enough women to completely fill a pod, they will be housed out of county. Inmates are also housed out of county due to certain medical issues.