By Raymond Whiteside

JONESBORO — Saving more than $100,000 at the Craighead County Detention Center means better security and fewer headaches for guards and administrators, Jail Administrator John Smith said.

It has been a little more than a year since the county signed a contract with TIGER Correctional Services, which supplies food, toiletries and some workers for the Craighead facility.

From June 2008 to June 2009 Smith said the jail has saved $110,290.30 by letting the Jonesboro business manage its food and supplies.

“In the later part of 2007 and early 2008 we put the numbers together of what we were spending at that time to come out with $1.56 per meal,” Smith said.

By the numbers

The county provides three meals a day, which means it would have spent $4.68 per day per inmate. The cost to feed an inmate for a year would have been about $1,708.

Smith said the average number of meals served each day is 364. Multiply that by the cost to feed an inmate for a day for 365 days, and the county, on average, would have spent $621,784.80 on food for inmates this year.

TIGER Correctional Services charged the county $511,494.50 for one year of service, or $1.28 per meal.

“Jails simply don’t have the buying power that we do,” said Chad Niell, owner of TIGER Correctional Services.

Niell said that because he supplies so many facilities, his company can buy food and supplies in bulk and at a reduced price.

“I know several jails out there that I could save $200,000 a year,” Niell said. “Jails shouldn’t be in the restaurant or commissary business. They should be in the business of security.”

“It allows us to focus back on our correctional responsibilities and keeps the staff focused on what they are actually here to do, and that is to guard the inmates,” Smith said.

He said that before, jail employees were running the kitchen and trying to manage the budgetary requirements of the process.

“It was a management nightmare from my standpoint — trying to make sure the vendors were giving us the best bang for our buck,” Smith said. “And working with the food service entity, we had to have the same licenses as any other restaurant. We get inspected by the Arkansas Health Department ... But now TIGER maintains and takes care of all of that.”

Smith said TIGER Correctional Services provides two to three workers for the kitchen, while the jail proved eight to 10 inmates to help them. He also said the meals are pretty good and consist of vegetables, a meat and a desert. The vegetables range from cabbage to green beans to squash, and the menu is on a 14-day rotation.

Smith said the meals are approved by a physician and based on a 2,300-calorie diet for a sedentary inmate and 2,700 calories for a working inmate.

Niell’s company services facilities in 23 states and has distribution centers in Chickasha, Okla., and Jonesboro.

In Arkansas the business has contracts with 40 jails.

rwhiteside@jonesborosun.com