FIRST ON 3: Prisoner costing Brunswick Co. taxpayers $100k a month

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Paying your medical bills in this day and age is scary enough, but if you live in Brunswick County, you’re also paying to help a sick prisoner charged with murder to the tune of $100,000 a month.

Brunswick County Commissioners will meet Monday evening to talk about several financial issues. On the agenda is medical inmate services, the majority of the expenses stemming from one inmates medical needs.

It’s a requirement that each county and state must provide proper medical care to those behind bars. Brunswick County will address the issue a couple of ways Monday night. First they’re expected to approve a new inmate medical service provider for next fiscal year, but that’s the easier one of the two. The other issue is an inmate who’s medical condition is currently costing the county more than $100,000 in medical bills.

“I can’t discuss particular injuries or anything like that, but there was a person charged with murder. Once he was charged, he was booked into our jail and didn’t stay long at all. We had to transport him to Raleigh,” Chief Deputy Charles Miller said.

The inmate, whose identity and medical condition are being protected, was sent to the state’s safekeeping facility which has a full medical ward. It doesn’t pay to treat the patient, though. That bill comes back to Brunswick County.

“The inmate has not been sentenced,” Miller said. “He’s a pre-trial detainee. He’s in Brunswick County’s custody until he’s sentenced to the Department of Corrections if he is so sentenced. But until that time, until trial, he’s technically in the care of the Brunswick County Sheriff.”

The inmate’s trial date is set for July, so until then the county has no other option but to pay his bill, which already cost it more than $100,000 dollars for the month of April. The cost is estimated to remain the same each month leading to this inmate court date.

The Sheriff’s Office says it’s very rare for an inmate to rack up these kind of medical costs.