Per Diem

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Introduction

The Citizen’s Action Committee on the closures of Burtch Correctional Centre and the Brantford Jail was formed after the government announcement of the closure of these two institutions in their restructuring plans. The Committee, formed from affected employees, community leaders, business leaders, lawyers and other parties interested in the justice field, proposed a regional Correctional Centre on the Burtch property. This included maintaining the present correctional Centre and the building of a Maplehurst style Detention Centre with shared services. This would provide several benefits:

Maintain and expand the unique service and ties the centre has to the large local Native community.
Maintain community ties and access to services for all offenders.
Reduce transportation costs related to court appearances and police, thus reducing the taxpayer’s cost compared to a "mega-jail"
Maintain the regional Intermittent Centre status Burtch CC currently serves.
Be economically efficient
Keep a maximum security Detention facility in our community
Maintain a minimum-medium security facility to emphasize rehabilitative programs
Reduce the load on Hamilton-Wentworth DC, an already overcrowded facility due to absorb several closures
Keep funds in an economically depressed area
Allow clients access to lawyers/family
Save Jobs

The Maplehurst design was chosen as it could be expanded to if the need arises due to its modular design. It is currently being done at Maplehurst. This would keep the initial capital investment down, with an easy method to expand if required.

Methods

It must be emphasized that some information was difficult to obtain. Estimates were based on current and past trends. Several documents were quite useful in estimating the cost of a combined centre. These include:

1994/95 Per diem Costs Memo - 23 June 1995.
Current Fiscal Year (1998/99) statistics.
Post Audits Memo 06 January 1995.
University of Guelph Financial Impact Study on Guelph Closures by Thanasis Stengos.
Infrastructure Renewal Questions and Answers - 09 October 1997

Capital Costs of Construction and retrofitting the current Burtch CC were not included, as the capital costs of the "mega jails" were not included in their per diems.

Several assumptions were made in the calculations:

The Average Salary and Benefits for each employee is \\$61,595 (based on University of Guelph Survey). This includes all levels of an institution. This may be lower as The University of Guelph Survey is based on Guelph CC’s current management levels; this proposal has lower levels.
Burtch would maintain its units and operate the Medium Security Unit that has recently been completed.
80% of an institution’s operating budget is salaries. This statistic was checked with the 1998/99 expenditure figures from Burtch and Brantford Jail (Table 1).
The Post Audit staffing formula was used.
The institution would operate at capacity.

Table 1: Fiscal 1998/99 statistics for the Brantford Jail and Burtch Correctional Centre

Fiscal 1998/99	Brantford Jail	Burtch CC	Average
Average daily count	83	175
Estimated total days stay	30315.75	63918.75
Total budget (x1000)	\\$3,597	\\$9,550
Salary budget (x1000)	\\$2,578	\\$8,352
% of budget salaries	72%	87%	80%
Per Diem	\\$118.65	\\$149.41

Findings and Conclusions

It is interesting to note that both Burtch CC and the Brantford Jail have both operated below the Ministry average per diem rates for several years(Table 2). Also, the Brantford Jail ( of which there is more data) shows that the per diem increase was often less or close to the inflation rate (Table 3). This indicates the efficiency and dedication of both institutions’ staff to deliver effective and efficient service.

The assumption that the new institution would operate at capacity means that per diem rates would be kept low. Per Diem rates and counts are quite interdependent. It was found that increasing Butch CC’s count by one Unit (60 inmates) reduced the Per Diem by 25%!

The combined institution would have many shared services, including all administration, records, food services, health care, classification and maintenance. The total staff of the new institution would be 203. This represents approximately 90% of the current staff of both Burtch CC and the Brantford Jail (currently 222 staff). This would be easily absorbed through attrition. The new institution would see a 70% increase in efficiency, with a 1:3.14 staff:inmate ratio. (old ratio of Brantford Jail plus Burtch CC is 1:1.85)

The Estimated Per Diem of the Combined facility is \\$67.18 . This is below the anticipated per diem of the Mega Jails. This might be a reflection of the efficiency of a minimum/medium correctional centre over a maximum security facility. It is estimated that adding 10 staff to this facility would only increase the per diem by \\$3, still below the projected mega jail per diem.

Table 2: Statistics from 1992-1996 for Burtch Correctional Centre and Brantford Jail

		BRANTFORD JAIL			BURTCH CC		Ministry AV
	EXPENDITURE	TOTAL DAYS STAY	PER DIEM	EXPENDITURE	TOTAL DAYS STAY	PER DIEM
92-93	\\$3,145,682	30603	\\$102.79
93-94	\\$3,214,884	30310	\\$106.67	\\$10,562,500	87347	\\$120.93	\\$128.42
94-95	\\$3,204,419	29198	\\$109.75	\\$9,873,939	85445	\\$115.56	\\$120.97
95-96	\\$3,379,710	30295	\\$111.56
96-97	\\$3,555,134	31755	\\$112.27

Table 3: Inflation Rate (CPI) and Expenditure for Brantford Jail from 1992-1996

Appendix

Combined Institution Staffing Levels and Projections

Burtch DC
Maximum Count	278
Total days Stay	101470

Correctional Officers		Total Hours Coverage/Day
Officers for unlock period (16h)	20	320
Officers for Nights (8h)	8	64
	Total	384

Total Hours Coverage/Year		140160

Total # Officers		82

Operational Managers		5

Burtch CC


Maximum Count	360
Total days Stay	131400


Correctional Officers		Total Hours Coverage/Day
Minimum Units (4)
Officers per 24 hr period	2	192

Medium Unit
Officers for unlock period (16h)	3	48
Officers for night period (8h)	2	16

Duty Office
Officers/24 hr period	2	48

A & D
Officers/8 hrs	2	16

Programs
Weekday (12hr)	4	48
Weekend (12hr)	1	3
	Total	371

Total Hours Coverage/Year		135571

Total # Officers		80

Operational Managers		5

Shared Staff


Superintendent	1
Deputy Operations	1
Deputy Programs	1
Records	5
Classification/EM	3
Staff Training OM	1
Staff Scheduling OM	1
Office management	3
Health Care	5
Food Services	5
Maintenance	4
Drivers	1

Total	31

Summary


Total staff	203
Average salary	\\$61,595.00
Total staff Costs	\\$12,515,793.44
Total Days Stay	232870



Estimated Budget	\\$15,644,741.80

Estimated Per Diem	\\$67.18

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