PICKENS COUNTY—The federal government recently reimbursed Pickens County for some of the costs associated with incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens this year.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the award of $3,339.00 to Pickens County. The goal of this program is to enhance public safety in communities throughout the nation.

The opportunity to receive these funds originates from federally mandated programs that the county is providing at local cost.

The Pickens County Sheriff’s office said the federal government drives local political entities to assume more responsibility for the administration and delivery of government services. Many times these services are funded with local dollars.

However, according to the Sheriff’s office, in some cases there are federal funding opportunities available, if the proper request is made.

“Identifying federal funding stream opportunities and then properly applying for them are not simple or easy tasks,” Pickens County Sheriff David Stone said in a statement. “The interaction between federal, state, and local political entities is complex, and often unwieldy for most local political entities.”

Captain Keith Galloway praised his division and staff at the Pickens County Sheriff’s office.

“The Detention Division is tasked with checking and tracking all undocumented aliens that have committed crimes within our county. The men and women of the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office do a great job with this task each and every year; I thank each of them for that.”

Galloway also praised local “ICE” agents for the job they do.

“We have a great working relationship with the ICE Agents, and they do a great job tracking these law-breakers also,” he said.

Galloway stated the federal grants help off-set the cost of housing criminal aliens, thus saving Pickens County taxpayer dollars.

The sheriff’s office said an aggressive program of researching and applying for little known federal programs to supplement the local tax burden was implemented by engaging Justice Benefits, Inc. (JBI) for assistance.

JBI is a public sector consulting firm located in Dallas, Texas, that specializes in locating and accessing hard-to-find federal reimbursements for local and state entities. JBI does the research, gathers and analyzes the data, and completes all necessary information to be included in the application.

“As a result of JBI’s expertise and experience, Pickens County was able to maximize its dollar amount on this application,” said Stone in a release. “Pickens County was one of only 890 (out of 3,140) eligible local entities across the U.S. that successfully applied for these dollars.”