Back to FAQ main page. There are several ways to calculate the jail bed cost. One way is to take the entire budget of the jail and divide it by the number of jail beds, then divide by the number of days in the year, which amounts to $234.71 per inmate per day.This method includes all County overhead costs, as well as support services and the booking operations.o determine the cost per jail bed of just the inmate housing area operations, subtract the County overhead costs, support services and the booking operations from the entire jail budget.