Logan County Jailer Bill Jenkins gave his bimonthly report at Tuesday’s Fiscal Court meeting, which included the detention center’s population.

Jenkins reported 130 inmates currently housed in the jail – only 30 of which are from the state.

He said the state pulled 10 inmates from Logan jail recently due to overcrowding. Jenkins said because of this it cost the jail approximately $300 a day. The state pays the county to house it’s inmates at $30 a day. The county has to pay the total cost on inmate care for its own prisoners.

Magistrate Dickie Carter asked Jenkins what he thought could be done about the overcrowding, including asking if the jail needed to be expanded.

Jenkins said there really wasn’t anything he or the county could do. He said the state looks at total population, not how many beds are empty. A jail has classifications areas. There may be an overcrowding of inmates in one part of the jail sleeping on the floor but empty beds in another more secure part of the jail.

This doesn’t matter to the state, according to Jenkins. Logan County’s jail is built to house 123 inmates.

Carter said he felt the number of inmates will only increase due to “the way the world was going” and said there seemed to be a problem that everyone knew about but didn’t want to face.

Magistrate Harold Prince made a motion to pass an ordinance requiring repeat offenders to be put on a chain gang and placed on a rock pile.

Carter told Prince if he wanted to make fun of what he was saying to just go right ahead. Prince said he wasn’t making fun and was serious. He said if you put some of these inmates on a rock pile they may not want to come back. Prince’s motion died for lack of a second.

Jenkins reported that 92 percent of those who come into his jail are in there for drug related charges. Carter said that if nobody wanted to fix the problem then he guessed the county would continue to “pour money down a black hole.”