Byrnes Mill and Arnold city officials have entered into an agreement calling for the Arnold Police Department to house prisoners for the Byrnes Mill Police Department, which has no jail.
The Arnold City Council voted 6-0 Feb. 7 in favor of the agreement, a day after the Byrnes Mill Board of Alderpersons voted unanimously to approve it.
The agreement took effect Feb. 7, and will last for one year. However, officials expect that the deal will be extended, said attorney Bob Sweeney, who represents both cities.
“It is a permanent-temporary basis,” Sweeney told the Arnold City Council. “It will stay in place until the parties dissolve the agreement. I know (Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak) has a desire to expand their facilities.”
According to the agreement, Byrnes Mill will pay $25 for each prisoner held in the Arnold Jail for less than 24 hours. Byrnes Mill will pay $35 per day for each prisoner held for 24 hours or more.
The Byrnes Mill Police Department rarely has prisoners to house, but if it does, it needs a place for them, Police Chief Frank Selvaggio said. “I have nowhere to hold people,” he said.
Byrnes Mill previously had a similar agreement with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which housed the city’s prisoners at the Jefferson County Jail. However, the county jail can no longer accommodate them, Marshak said.
“We do not have the room to house misdemeanor arrestees for all of the municipalities, but we do house their felons,” Marshak said. “Our jail population has climbed to more than 370 at times, and our misdemeanor population is less than 3 percent of our current population.”
Byrnes Mill was paying Jefferson County $45 for each prisoner it sent to the jail and an additional $45 for each day past the first 24 hours, Byrnes Mill City Clerk Debbie LaVenture said.
The Arnold Jail has six cells, and each one can hold two prisoners, for a total of 12 prisoners. Typically, two or three prisoners are housed there on any given day, Lt. Clinton Wooldridge said.
The agreement between Arnold and Byrnes Mill states that Arnold can refuse a Byrnes Mill prisoner if the Arnold Jail is full. However, it is unlikely that will occur, Arnold officials said.
“I don’t think it will be a problem,” Arnold City Administrator Bryan Richison said. “I don’t know if we have been at capacity at all.”
Arnold Police Maj. Brian Carroll, who attended the Feb. 7 Arnold council meeting in place of Chief Robert Shockey, said he expects Byrnes Mill will send one to two prisoners a month to Arnold.
Carroll told the council that most of the prisoners from Byrnes Mill probably would be held for less than 24 hours, with most held for just 12 hours following a domestic-violence arrest.
In those cases, “a 12-hour hold is required by state law,” Carroll told the council.
Richison said no other municipality has approached the city about housing their prisoners.
“I would be a little surprised if we heard from anybody else,” Richison said. “Byrnes Mill is a small enough community they will not have to use our jail very often.
“Festus, for example, is a good-size city. It is not really practical for the amount of prisoners they may have to bring them up here. I think the volume and distance wouldn’t work for many other cities. I think it works for Byrnes Mill because of the low volume they have.”
While it is unlikely Arnold would enter a prisoner agreement with another police department, Richison said, the city would be willing to consider it.
“We would have to take a serious look at how many prisoners we could expect from another city, and we would have to look at what we would need for ourselves and Byrnes Mill,” he said. “With a smaller city, we might, if they are small enough. It would depend on how many people they might send our way.”
Since Sweeney drafted the agreement between Arnold and Byrnes Mill, he asked officials at both cities to waive any conflict of interest before voting on the agreement, and they did.
Arnold Ward 1 Councilman EJ Fleischmann was absent from the meeting, and Ward 2 Councilman Brian McArthur was not present for the vote.