BROOKHAVEN — Lincoln County Board of Supervisors considered a motion to update a contract with Brookhaven for the housing of city inmates last Thursday at a docket meeting. The issue did not come up again during the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting Monday. 

Brookhaven’s Board of Aldermen will meet Tuesday night and could discuss the issue. 

Lincoln County Board of Supervisors Attorney Greg Malta said they would look to update contract terms to include an increase of the daily rate for city inmate housing from $35 to $50 per inmate, redefine when a city inmate becomes a county inmate and work on the year to year contract for the jail. Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing explained any inmates that have been arrested by the city and booked on a misdemeanor charge into the jail are considered city inmates and the City is billed for their days in jail. 

Rushing said if an inmate arrested in the city by Brookhaven Police Department is charged with a felony or their charges are upgraded to a felony they become a county inmate and the City is no longer billed for the days after they are bound to grand jury.  

A legal question has been raised as to whether the city inmate becomes a county inmate when they are indicted on the felony charges by the grand jury. Rushing explained the City is currently billed for the days from arrest to the city inmate being bound over to the grand jury. 

Contract terms could be updated to make it where the City is billed for the days until inmates are indicted by the grand jury instead of bound to the grand jury.