Female inmates sent out of county

After nearly a year, the female inmates at the Southeast Kansas Regional Correctional Center are being sent back to another correctional facility.

According to SEKRCC Director of Security Jimmy Nichols, a growing male population led to Bourbon County Sheriff Ron Gray's decision to send the 15 female inmates back to Cherokee County.

"We had done our best to keep them here, but it finally got to the point where there were way too many females," Nichols said.

In March 2009, the eight female inmates which were being housed in Cherokee County were brought back to the SEKRCC following a decline in the male population. That move saved the county $40 per day for each of the eight inmates.

As the female population grew to 15 inmates, housed in a room designed to hold eight, Gray made the decision to clear out a male holding unit and separate the females. With the male population now back at full capacity, Gray and Nichols were left with no other options.

"The last thing either one of us wanted to do was send them to a different county," Nichols said. "We had no choice but to send them to Cherokee County."

To help offset the $600 per day it costs to house the female inmates in Cherokee County, the SEKRCC is housing male inmates from another county. According to Nichols, the amount of inmates from another county being housed at the SEKRCC covers more than half the cost to send the female inmates to Cherokee County.