With Freeborn County taking federal inmates as a result of a recent agreement, Mower County has had to look elsewhere when boarding their own inmates.

Local officials have once again turned to Steele County and have sent more inmates to Goodhue County as well, Sheriff Terese Amazi and county coordinator Craig Oscarson said.

This coming after Freeborn County said in July that they would no longer take Mower County inmates.

On Tuesday, the Mower County board officially terminated their end of a contract with Freeborn.

Boarding costs will likely increase as a result because inmates will have to be transported farther, Amazi and Oscarson said.

The county’s boarding budget is approximately $800,000, Amazi said.

The county had been shipping out inmates for a number of years because of overcrowding, but a November 2007 decision by state correction officials to make the local jail a short-term lock up facility has only increased the need.

Because of that decision, the Mower County jail can only hold inmates for a maximum of 90 days — not three years as before.

Most inmates will still be sent to Mitchell County, Iowa, where about 18 are held at any given time, the sheriff said.

The deal with Steele County was in the works before Freeborn’s decision, Amazi said, and is a return to an agreement that was in place before Mower County turned to Freeborn — and away from Steele — several years ago.

Freeborn decided to end their deal with Mower County because of an agreement they made with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March, which will bring up to 80 federal inmates facing deportation to the jail at any given time.

The first 10 arrived in Albert Lea in June.

It will boost the number of inmates in the jail toward its 122-person capacity and provide Freeborn County a reimbursement of about $77 per day per detainee held in the facility.

The Freeborn County jail will also act as a hub serving ICE for southern Minnesota, northern Iowa and surrounding areas as needed.