Sedgwick County gives additional $2.6 million for jail to address uptick in violent offenders

Violent crime in the past couple of years has overloaded the Sedgwick County Jail and put the inmate population at its highest in a decade.

To help remedy the problem, Sedgwick County Commissioners on Wednesday approved a $2.6 million injection into the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office budget to sustain the jail through 2019. Sheriff Jeff Easter said the department has been paying to keep roughly 200 inmates out of county at any given time. He said the renovations at the jail, expected to be completed March 2020, would add 63 beds.

Easter said 70% of inmates have an addiction problem, with methamphetamine being the largest problem.

(Read more: Local News |)