Deciding what kind of process to use and what kind of jail to build may hinge on how quickly it can be done.
With the federal lawsuit continuing to hover over the county’s head, Henry County Council President Susan Huhn said Friday the traditional construction route may be the best in both the short and long run.
“I was leaning toward the design-build until I talked with Elevatus about some of the issues associated with that,” Huhn said. “I’m interested in getting started as quickly as possible and I think that design-build is going to be a long start process.”
“I think I’ll have a better idea after I listen to each of the companies come and talk with us,” Huhn said.
Huhn and council member Chad Malicoat each had mixed feelings following Friday’s discussion about the three options available to building a new jail – public works, design/build and public-private partnership.
“I think the consensus was an interest in the design/build and the traditional form,” Malicoat said. “We want to hear everyone next week, their proposals and thoughts.”
Those meetings are scheduled to happen Thursday and Friday, as representatives from six firms interested in building the new Henry County jail make their pitches. RFIs – or “requests for information” – will be presented all day Thursday as well as Friday morning.
Last Friday, County Attorney Joel Harvey helped Commissioners and Council walk through three types of approaches commonly used to build facilities like a new jail – the traditional public works project, a design/build approach and a public-private partnership.
Commissioner Ed Tarantino said he saw no reason to try and reinvent the wheel where a new jail was concerned.
“I don’t see why we’d have to go back to square one,” Tarantino said. “They’re building jails all around here. You find one you like, you put a number on how many people you want to house and we go out on request for proposals on something fairly similar to that. That information is out there already. Why try to start from scratch?”
Sheriff Ric McCorkle, who has been adamant about the need for action, said the opportunity is there for a new jail to actually help pay for itself.
“We’ve got to build a jail,” McCorkle said. “And if we’re going to build it, we’ve got to build it soon. And if we build it for 300, I can tell you we can charge $70 a day for I.C.E. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to house federal prisoners. We can help pay for this thing. But we’ve got to get it done now because other jails are being built.”
Kim Cronk, president of the Henry County Commissioners and a former two-term sheriff, said drug rehabilitation and treatment should be factored into any new facility. McCorkle agreed, estimating that as many as 90 percent of those jailed have drug-related offenses.
“We have to give these people hope,” McCorkle said.
“I guarantee you 75 or 80 percent of the population today has someone in their family who has either abused drugs or is addicted to drugs. And that doesn’t address alcohol. All of us here today can say we have a family member who has struggled with alcohol or used drugs.”
But Huhn and Malicoat said the treatment option might be better suited to a public-private partnership arrangement with an organization here like Guest House, which has had some success stories of late.
“Our primary responsibility here is to cover our jail needs and I think we need to move forward,” Malicoat said. “In talking to Jason Semler, using the $1.852 million we’re going to get per year from the jail tax, we could probably bond somewhere around $20 million.”
“We have enough to start the first phase without a referendum,” County Councilman Clay Morgan said. “We just have to pull the trigger.”
Commissioner Ed Yanos said both visits and discussions with officials from other counties also building new jails would be both imperative and helpful.
“I think we all need to hear the proposals next week,” Yanos said. “I think we need to see some jails. I’d also recommend one other thing. When I go to places and talk to other commissioners who have been involved in building projects, I like to ask them ‘What did you like about the project?’ and ‘What would you do different?’
“I think that’s a key part of the process we really haven’t discussed much,” Yanos added.
“Trying to learn from other people’s mistakes and successes.”
Malicoat said he was in favor of hitting the road to visit other facilities so the practice of “kicking the can down the road” on the jail issue would stop.
“At $22-$23 million, if we delay a year, it takes every single dime of that $1.8 million because of the increase in construction,” Malicoat said. “Every month we delay adds $150,000 per month. So we cannot continue to kick this can. A new jail has got to happen.”
Officials visiting Decatur County Jail today
Various members of the County Commissioners, Henry County Council and local law enforcement planned to take “a fact-finding field trip” today and visit the Decatur County Jail in Greensburg.
Local officials hope the trip will help them as they continue a decision-making process of what kind of new jail facility will best serve Henry County.
“There’s a brand new facility there,” County Councilman Chad Malicoat said. “It’s not open yet. It’s planned to be open in February or March. It’s fashioned very similarly to the Adams County facility that several other facilities have been fashioned after.”
The field trip is just part of a plan to accelerate a decision-making process on what kind of jail should be built here to replace the current facility, which is overcrowded and dates back to 1980.
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