Audit: DeKalb County Sheriff's Office overcharged INS
By
Posted 8:13AM on Monday, January 27, 2003
DECATUR - A federal audit reports that the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office owes the Immigration and Naturalization Service a $5.6 million refund for billing errors made under former Sheriff Sidney Dorsey.<br>
<br>
The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General said DeKalb County overcharged INS to hold immigrants in federal custody who were awaiting deportation hearings, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in Monday's editions.<br>
<br>
The INS removed the 400 detainees in 2001, citing concerns about poor health care provided by the county jail. DeKalb lost a $13 million contract.<br>
<br>
DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown said he would not recommend a refund. He said the INS agreed to a higher per-inmate rate before signing the contract than an amount later cited by auditors.<br>
<br>
"We are in the middle of negotiations," Brown told the newspaper. However, Brown thinks the health care problems will improve and the county and INS will sign a new contract this year.<br>
<br>
INS spokeswoman Amy Otten said it's too early to know if more detainees will be placed in the DeKalb County Jail.<br>
<br>
She declined comment on whether the INS would seek the refund, but said there are "a number of issues to resolve" which are related to the audit.<br>
<br>
Dorsey was convicted last year of masterminding the assassination of his elected successor, Derwin Brown. Former DeKalb sheriff's Deputy Patrick Cuffy testified he helped arrange the Dec. 15, 2000, killing on Dorsey's orders.<br>
<br>
Prosecutors investigating corruption allegations against Dorsey examined overbilling accusations, but "our investigation never showed where any individual in the sheriff's department received any money from the INS contract," DeKalb District Attorney J. Tom Morgan said.<br>
<br>
