Massachusetts incarcerating more people and keeping them locked up longer boosts counties coffers

But Hodgson, and other sheriffs across the state, are glad to have them: For each immigrant, they receive an average of $90 a day. Bristol and other cash-strapped county jails are increasingly embracing the immigration business, capitalizing on the soaring number of foreign-born detainees and the millions of federal dollars a year paid to incarcerate them. Bristol County alone has raked in $33 million since 2001, and has used the money to transform itself into a sprawling campus with a commissary, an ambulance communications center, and a "management accountability building" for regular meetings on jail operations.
"That money is a tremendous boost for us," said Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr., whose jail houses 324 immigrants, up from 44 a decade ago, bringing in $15.6 million last year. "We aggressively try to market ourselves to get as many of those inmates into our doors as we can."


Link: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/09/jailed_immigrants_buoy_budgets/