Not as big of a crowd as hope for Tuesday night for another public meeting over the proposed new jail here in Reno County. Around 40-people showed up for the presentation by architects and county officials to inform residents of the plan and need for a new jail.
Some were clearly skeptical, while others made suggestions such as teaming up with surrounding counties and build one regional jail and share the cost. That apparently had been considered but those on the jail committee saw it as “impractical.”
Another man suggested that 10-acres set aside for the proposed new jail isn’t big enough, that the county needs at least 50-acres. But, Sheriff Captain Larry Dyer says that with the 10-acres, there is more then enough room to expand if they need to. But, officials believe that if the new jail is built, it should last 50-years.
The biggest concern that Captain Dyer has is space with us housing inmates out of county. He says they’re spending up to 400-thousand dollars a year to send inmates to three other counties. Then, there’s the man power needed to bring those inmates back and fourth for court hearings. He says on some weekends, they run out of space and have to bring staff in to take some inmates to other counties which results in overtime.
Sheriff Randy Henderson recently warned people on the department website that if arrested during the winter storms, they would be sleeping on the floor because of no space. That is a violation of the fire codes and if caught, the fire marshal could have shut them down says Dyer. Reno County is currently housing inmates in Butler, Ford and Chase Counties.
Something that has been missing in the mix for several years with the county jail is “work release.” Sheriff Henderson says they shut it down because of the complications of separating inmates and other issues. He told the gathering that this tied the hands of the judges. He says work release would allow some serving time in the jail to go to work during the day and help their families.
But, work release can be tricky because some released to go to a job could bring contraband into the jail. But, the new jail would keep work release inmates separate from others cutting down on that happening.
County Commission Chairman Dan Deming told the gathering that if this jail proposals fails, it will mean an increase in property taxes because they will have to spend up to 1-million dollars to bring the jail up to code, and still wouldn’t solve the space problem. Plus, they still plan to make the courthouse more secure and the would cost an additional 700-thousand dollars. He says they would be forced to raise the mill levy and raise property taxes as early as 2014. He says its not meant as a threat, but the reality of where we are. He says we’re just a federal lawsuit away from having to build a new jail anyway.
The plan is to ask voters to approve a half cent sales tax to cover the 28.8-million dollar project. That would include moving some county departments to what is now the county jail annex, courthouse security, and renovation of the current main jail for law enforcement use, both city and county.
The new 77-thousand plus square foot jail would be built on land purchased from the Kansas Department of Corrections at the corner of Blanchard and Severance just south of the animal shelter.
They are still giving tours of the current jail up to March 19, so there’s still a little time left and Sheriff Henderson says you can contact his office for more information.