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Napa County jail has a new policy of making certain inmates leave with exactly the same money they came in with after being stuck with four counterfeit $100 bills.

On March 1, an inmate was booked into jail and turned over personal property, including the $400. The money was run through a counterfeit detection machine, checked with a specialty marker that detects legitimate bill paper, put in an envelope marked with inmate information and placed in a safe, a county report said.

The inmate left jail on March 2 - a Saturday - with a check from the county for the $400. Jail clerical staff the following Monday ran the bills through another counterfeit detector and this machine found the bills were inauthentic. Jail officials tried to stop payments on the check, but it had already been cashed.

The counterfeit $100 bills in this case had been printed on $1 bills, the report said. An investigation by the county found no fraud by county staff.

As a result, the jail installed a new counterfeit detection machine for bookings. From now on, inmates will leave with the same bills that they brought into jail, the report said.

The matter is going before the Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday as a consent calendar item, which means it can be passed without comment. The Director of Corrections is asking to be relieved from accountability for the $400 loss. Repayment is to come from the Department of Corrections budget.

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