With the Cayuga County Jail's population running well under maximum capacity, Sheriff Rob Outhouse and other jail administrators are seeking additional boarded-in federal prisoners as a means to generate more revenue for the county facility.

"We have the potential to open up to more boarding," Outhouse said, following a recent positive inspection of the county jail by officials from the Federal Bureau of Prisoners.

"We're hoping to capitalize on that and make it happen," Outhouse said. "They're looking very favorably at using our facility."

The county jail would receive $100 per day to house each additional prisoner.

"It's a good revenue source to help fund the public safety building," said county legislator David Pappert, R-Auburn.

"It's very encouraging. It's a direct result of the great inspection they got."

The county jail currently boards federal prisoners from the U.S. Marshal Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Bureau of Prisoners.

The county jail also boards alleged state parole violators pending their hearings and inmates from other counties that have an overflow of prisoners. Cayuga County Jail receives $90 per day for every prisoner boarded from another county facility, but only $34 a day for state prisoners.

The jail averages around 170 prisoners, but was down to 142 male and female prisoners Friday.

Only 34 of the current 142 county jail inmates are board-ins. A majority (26) were federal prisoners, and eight were inmates from other county jails that were experiencing overflow.

If the county jail does secure additional federal prisoners, it will be responsible for transporting the prisoners to and from their facilities in Buffalo.

The new prisoners would be inmates without much time remaining in their sentences, who would be released from the Sennett facility, and transported back to the Buffalo area.

"The rate of reimbursement will certainly offset the costs of transportation," Outhouse said. The Bureau of Prisons also would help pay for the transportation costs.

With the county jail at 65 percent capacity, "they can certainly house more inmates if that's what they choose to," said one official with the state Commission of Correction.

The jail can only house a maximum of 212 prisoners in the facility, but operating at 80 percent capacity is ideal to allow for the required separation of inmates into sentenced and unsentenced populations, different age groups and male and female prisoner wards, Outhouse said.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net