GRANT COUNTY — On March 18, the Grant County Council updated the community about the jail project and heard public comments on the matter.
“I felt like there’s a lot of maybe mystery going around about it,” Council President Greg Kitts said. “We’ve been talking about this. It’s been actually over a year, and I think some people are kind of surprised that we’re talking about a jail or something like that.”
Options on the table
Kitts presented the three options before the county based on previous jail discussions.
The first would be to renovate part of the juvenile detention center “D-home” and add a new pod with an upfront cost of $56 million and would cost $98 million to have 352 beds.
The second option was to renovate part of D-home, add a new pod and renovate the juvenile detention area with an upfront cost of $61.18 million. The overall cost of the second option would be $108 million, which would have 398 beds.
The third option was to build a new jail, potentially on Garthwaite Road. The upfront cost to build a new jail would be $73.9 million, with an overall cost of roughly $127 million, which would house 469 beds.
Kitts said the monetary difference between option one and two is about $5.2 million based on renovating the juvenile detention center itself. He said based on discussions he had with the contractor, the juvenile detention area could be double bunked and could hold 92 people. With option two, it would take the preexisting 274 beds, plus the 92 from the juvenile area and bring a round total of 366 beds.
“The big questions about that though is how long does our jail last,” he said. “I don’t think anybody can really predict that. I believe the latest argument or stance for the new jail has to do with the capacity of the current facility.”
Kitts said he toured the jail and believes that it has been well preserved and complimented the staff who work there and maintain it. However, he is concerned about building a new facility in the county and that it could tie the hands of future county councils.
According to Kitts, one way to fund a new jail would be by using $2.26 million of the county’s operating budget for the next 25 years.
Pre-trial Home Detention
During the new business portion of the council meeting, the councilmen agreed to take the next steps in introducing a pretrial home detention program, which in turn will help save money when it comes to housing out-of-county inmates. Kitts said if the county is paying for a new jail with the operating budget, then programs like this could be less likely.
Councilman Jim McWhirt said this decision is going to be based on what the commissioners bring to the council to decide upon and agreed that one of the key questions to be asked is how long the current facility will last.
Councilman Aaron Caudell brought up another concern about how long the infrastructure and equipment are going to last within the current jail.
“Buildings last a long time, but to operate that effectively is my biggest concern,” Caudell said. “To really look at that, I think you need a segregation study to look at the roofs, to look at the mechanical disconnects to kind of estimate the longevity of the equipment left in that building.”
Councilman Mike Scott said if the county were to build a new jail, it could take about three years for construction to complete.
Commissioner Chuck Poling spoke to the council and said there is nothing structurally wrong with the jail. He said ever since he has been a commissioner, the county has done less work on the D-home and the jail compared to other county buildings.
“You cannot put this on the taxpayer when your problem is not criminal,” Poling said. “We’ve proven this in community corrections meetings that it’s mental health and drugs. You want to build a jail not for criminals.”
Poling told the council that he figures the county could fix the jail and the D-home for $10 million or less. McWhirt said if the commissioner could bring the council a plan to renovate the D-home and make the jail usable for 15 years for $8 million to $10 million, then he would like to see it.
Public comments
Grant County resident Dallas Street said it makes no sense to have a 25-year loan on a building with a 20-year lifespan.
“We’ve proven and we continue to prove daily that it can continue to operate past the 20-year lifespan,” Street said. “The sheriff does that on a daily basis right now. The commissioners have already confirmed that the cost of building a new jail will not increase taxes. The taxes have already gone up because of the LIT (local income tax). So we the taxpayers are paying that already.”
Street said he spoke to Sheriff Del Garcia over email. He told the council that if a jail were to be built, then Garcia would open the doors and house other counties’ inmates, which could result in potential income to set aside for a new jail.
Street also said if a new jail were to be built, then more rehabilitation companies could potentially come in and collaborate with the jail staff.
“As a taxpaying citizen with three young sons, I’m looking for a fix, not a repair, not a band-aid,” Street said. “I want to shoulder this burden now so my sons don’t have to in 15 years when they become taxpayers.”
Resident June Brown said if the county were to have a bigger jail, then it is just going to get filled up. She said there should be some focus on getting first-time offenders out of the jail to get rehabilitation.
“I think our focus needs to be a little broader than just the state of the jail,” she said. “I think we should fix the jail, but we need to fix the root problem and that’s the drug abuse, basically mental health.”
A resident who lives on Garthwaite Road said it is concerning to have a potential jail built so close to a school, and he is concerned about the property values of his home if a jail were to be put there.
Board of Zoning Appeals President Ed Hartman said if the council were to build a new jail, then there is going to be a tighter operating budget for years to come. He said it could pose an issue due to other county buildings also in need of repairs.
“There’s nothing structurally ready to fall down at the jail, it’s all maintenance,” Hartman said. “I’d be much more in favor of doing that than putting us deep in debt, not knowing what the future is on what we’re going to face in reduced property taxes, which are reduced taxes to the county.”
Area Plan Council President Randy Atkins asked Garcia what happened to the programs that are in place to help with rehabilitation.
“They’re still ongoing. It works. However, so far it’s been insufficient in keeping that population down,” Garcia said. “What we have to really look at as a county is what do we do with those who violate the law. Do we want accountability, or do we not want accountability? Lack of accountability creates more crime. I can tell you today we have 345 inmates. Out of the 345, 119 individuals, or 34.5 percent, are classified as misdemeanor or Level 6 felony offenders, which is our lowest offense.”
Garcia also reminded everyone that his role with the jail project is to provide information to the commissioners and the council as well as being responsible for the 345 inmates.
Garcia said with space within the jail to provide programs to truly help inmates get rehabilitated, those people could leave with a foundation to get their lives set up for the future.
“I believe that if you look at the history of our communities, I believe that in order to check off all the boxes to be able to provide proper rehabilitation and to properly address the overcrowding, I think that we would probably need a new jail,” Garcia said. “However, that is not my decision to make. My job is to give the information. I can tell you our population in the jail is 360 to 380 most of the time and a big problem is the opioid problem. We definitely need to get help, but how do we do that? How do we get from point A to point B?”
During Garcia’s public comment time, he said this potential new jail or current jail is not “Del Garcia’s jail,” but the people of Grant County’s jail. He said whatever the council decides to do, he will work with and will continue to try to keep the population down.