Boone County Jail facing significant overcrowding

By: Anna Spidel, KBIA
Boone County Jail is currently over capacity. Officials say as of Wednesday, the jail had 289 inmates on its books — and it’s paying for 75 inmates to be housed in other counties.

Built in 1991, jail officials said they have the capacity to “comfortably house” up to 210 inmates, and could house as many as 246 in an emergency. Capt. Brian Leer, with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, said the jail tries not to hold more than 200 people.

However, with 289 inmates as of Wednesday morning, Leer said only 214 of them are being housed in Boone County Jail. 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 has become common for inmates to be housed outside of Boone County due to overcrowding. He also 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). So like, 250 plus are in here on felonies,” Leer said.

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.

This article was originally published by KBIA and is re-published with permission.