Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth hosted a special tour Thursday at the Ingham County Jail.

The point? To paint a picture for county commissioners on how the board's newest cost-cutting ideas would really work.

"With some of the budget issues, very idea in the world has been thrown on the table," Commissioner Randy Schafer said.

One idea is to close post nine at the jail -- which would eliminate 56 beds and layoff 6 deputies.

"If you close a post, they've got to go somewhere and that's fewer beds for judges to use," Sheriff Wriggelsworth said. "It would be the third post closed at the jail. That causes me concern."

The other idea out there would be to close the juvenile detention center in Lansing, and move them into post nine, but you'd have to factor in the cost for renovations.

"Juveniles need to be out of sight and sound of adults," Schafer said. "They need a separate entrance, a separate booking and so forth."

The Sheriff said post nine is completely full, in fact they planned to release a few inmates due to overcrowding Thursday evening. So, closing a portion of the jail certainly saves money, but it has its drawbacks.

"It's a cost saving issue that doesn't deal with public safety," Wriggelsworth said. "I want to make that clear."

The Sheriff was equally as blunt with commissioners on the tour Thursday.

It seems the message was received by those in attendance.

"I don't think it's a workable solution," Schafer said.

Schafer said closing the juvenile detention center and moving them into the county jail could save the county $800,000 which would only be a start considering the county is looking at a $1.5 million deficit for 2010.

This is just one of many ideas thrown around by the county to save money. This idea would have to go through committee first, and it hasn't done so yet.