The Boone County Jail is currently over capacity. Officials the jail had 289 inmates on its books on Wednesday — and it’s paying for 75 of them to be housed in other counties.
The jail was built in 1991, and officials said they have the capacity to “comfortably house” up to 210 inmates and could house as many as 246 in an emergency.
Boone County Sheriff’s Office Captain Brian Leer said the jail tries not to hold more than 200 people. Only 214 of the jail’s 289 inmates are being housed in the facility — the other 75 are in neighboring county jails.
“We’ve got several in Callaway, some in Cooper, several in Howard — there’s two down in Miller. We’ve got a bunch in Montgomery County. We’ve actually got a contract with Montgomery County. They house for us, and they come over and pick up and take them back and forth,” Leer said.
In the last six to eight months, Leer said it’s become common for inmates to be housed outside Boone County due to overcrowding.
He said the vast majority of the current 289 inmates are booked for felony charges.
“Only 31 are on a misdemeanor charge when you look at the 289 (inmates),” Leer said. “So like, 250 plus are in here on felonies.”
That means even if the jail removed all of its misdemeanor offenders, it still would not have enough room for the more than 250 remaining inmates on felony charges.
