CUMBERLAND —The check was written and ready to be mailed. But, now it has been voided.

Piedmont Regional Jail will just have to wait a little longer to receive this quarter’s payment from Cumberland County, one of the founding six localities that own the regional jail.

Tucked inconspicuously in with the County’s other bills during the October 8 board of supervisors meeting was one in the amount of $86,901, meant to pay the jail for the second quarter of this fiscal year. Although the board almost approved the jail bill, along with all the others for the County, they decided to pull it out and hold it until the jail can explain the increase in costs.

Almost a year ago, the battle with the jail began during the November meeting of the board. Supervisor Parker Wheeler, District Five, told the board they may have to begin paying to house prisoners, describing it as the end of a 24-year-long “free ride.” Since that announcement, Cumberland began receiving bills from the jail, which, for the first time, were not going to be reimbursed.

Wheeler, the Cumberland Board of Supervisor’s appointee to the jail board, was not present during Tuesday night’s meeting due to a death in the family.

When the jail board originally approved the 2013-2014 budget, they anticipated that the cost to the six participating localities would be approximately $1.9 million dollars, to be split between them according to usage over the next fiscal year.

However, only three months into the fiscal year, the expected cost to the counties has roughly doubled.

Tuesday night, Supervisor Bill Osl, District One, amended his original motion to pass the County bills by eliminating the jail bill from the list. He stated that he wanted to resolve this issue. “I want to get people in here — chairman, vice-chairman, the superintendent, whoever it is — that can answer the questions that Mr. Banks, Mr. Meinhard and others of us have… I want them to feel some of the heat from it,” he said.

The board unanimously voted to approve the remainder of the County bills. They then unanimously voted to withhold payment of the jail bill until after they meet with representatives from the jail.

If paid, the bill will bring the County’s payment to the jail for the first half of the fiscal year to $134,623, roughly $40,000 more than has been budgeted for the entire year.

Banks was the first to point out the bill, objecting to its inclusion with other, more routine, expenditures. He felt the public deserved an explanation regarding the increase in costs. “If they sent us a bill for $90,000, I say, let the bill collect dust until somebody comes in here and gives us some level of assurance that this is not going to be what to expect every quarter,” he said.

County Administrator and Attorney Vivian Giles is the board’s alternate to the jail board and has been helping the jail restructure their methodology for billing the participating counties. When asked why there has been such a substantial increase in jail costs, she explained that the cause was twofold.

First, she explained that the jail has experienced a reduction in revenue because they are now housing less federal inmates than they had in the past.

Second, there has been a half-a-million-dollar increase in medical costs for the jail, which began on September 1. The increased medical costs also include a one-time bill of $90,000, which was included in this quarter’s billing.

Supervisor Kevin Ingle, District Three, pointed out that costs would only increase until the jail is able to fill its beds and generate extra revenue, agreeing with Banks that a face-to-face meeting with authorities from the jail would be beneficial.

Even with the increased jail costs, the six participating counties are getting a bargain when compared to other localities.

The Herald calculated that, on average, localities pay about $38 per inmate day to house their prisoners, using data from the 2011 Jail Cost Report published by the Virginia Compensation Board. In 2011, the average cost per inmate day was $72.48 across the state and the average share to localities was 52.4 percent.

Currently, localities that are not part of the regional jail pay, on average, $31 to house their inmates there, while federal prisoners are charged at over $45 a day.

The cost per inmate day for participating localities has been rising steadily this year. January’s billing was at $9 a day. By July, the rate had doubled to $19 a day. In the most recent bill, the rate rose to $31 a day, $7 shy of the state average.

Bargain or not, the jail will have to wait at least a month for its check, until a representative appears before the board to explain the increase in costs during the board’s next regular meeting.