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What's wrong with our current
facilities? Why do we need to build?
We started looking at these issues in Phase One of
our study and are expanding the analysis of these issues
in Phase Two also. This is what we believe so far.
Age and Resulting Maintenance Issues:
The Main Jail was built in 1898, and expanded in 1983,
bringing its capacity to 97. In 1989, the jail was renovated,
adding 12 beds. The building has been used - and used
hard - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since it was constructed.
As a result, it has aged more rapidly than other types
of buildings which were built at the same time. The
Annex was originally an industrial building which the
County acquired in 1991 and adapted to minimum security
correctional use.
The Main Jail - and all of its systems - are long
past the end of their life cycle. Maintenance costs
for this facility will continue to increase and we are
vulnerable to aging materials and equipment which is
no longer manufactured and can't be replaced easily.
From an accounting perspective, this building has no
value; it is depreciated out. It is its location that
has the value.
The Annex - is also an older building although it was
renovated 12 years ago. Typically building life cycles
are seen in 30 year increments with a mid-point reinvestment
in building systems. When the Annex was renovated, it
was viewed as a "ten year solution" to the
County's jail problem. As a result, it is likely
to need a reinvestment to remain operational in the
long-term.
Standard and Code Issues:
Both buildings have code compliance issues when viewed
in light of today's standards. While the buildings
were constructed to meet the applicable code at the
time, today there are additional requirements which
both facilities fail, in some areas, to meet. We
have difficulty with specific areas of today's requirements
of life-safety code, correctional standards (both state
and professional), as well as accessibility requirements.
It is important to understand that when the County initiates
a major construction project in either of these facilities,
we will need to address areas of non-compliance.
This issue applies to both the Main Jail and the Annex,
but is more acute in the Main Jail.
Functionality and Operating Costs:
One of the major problems with the Main Jail is that
it's physical plant doesn't provide adequate space for
the kinds of functions that are required.
The physical plant was never designed for the functions
that we now need to provide; health care and basic
visiting services are good examples of this kind of
problem.
Because we have to provide a higher level of service
today than we did when the jail was constructed, we
also have more staff. The facility was never designed
for the number of staff we currently require.
Because the jail was never designed to hold the number
of inmates we currently have, space for basic functions,
such as food service, laundry and storage, are not
large enough for the volume of activity.
The Main Jail experiences these problems most acutely
since it was originally constructed at a time when indoor
plumbing was a novelty and the basics of inmate services
were far less than today's requirements.
The Annex experiences these problems to a much lesser
degree. However, it is very dependent on receiving services,
such as food service and health care, from and/or in
the Main Jail. This does have an impact on operations.
In the Main Jail, the County has a much more serious
problem. This facility is not operationally efficient
because of the very design of the physical plant.
Over a typical thirty year life cycle of any jail, about
10% of the money spent is for the capital construction
and 90% is spent on operations. Obviously, the more
operationally efficient we can be, the more we can save
County taxpayers in the long term.
The basic footprint of the building is too small
to provide enough square footage for an efficient staff
to inmate ratio. Its overall dimensions are not appropriate
for a facility that has to meet today's physical plant
standards.
The layout of inmate housing is linear. Cells
blocks are organized in small groups; staff see these
areas by walking doing periodic rounds from either the
main corridor or a catwalk. In both cases, inmates are
only observed when staff pass their area. This results
in a lower level of supervision than is expected today.
This is an increasing problem because, as we move more
inmates into alternatives to incarceration, the inmates
who remain in the facility are those who present the
highest levels of risk to themselves or others; they
require a higher level of supervision, to which this
facility does not lend itself.
Jail Crowding:
Although the County has implemented a number of successful
alternatives to incarceration and although we have dramatically
reduced our jail population, our jail continues to be
over capacity.
Jails can't operate at 100% occupancy. By standards
- and for the safety of staff and inmates alike, different
classifications of inmates must be separated from each
other. There must always be room for new admissions;
this is especially an issue when the Jail is the central
booking location for all police agencies in the County.
There has to be enough room to allow for daily, weekly
and seasonal variations. As a result, on an annual basis,
jails need to operate at about 85% of capacity. Scott
County hasn't had the number of jail beds that it needs
since 1990.
Through the efforts of a variety of County agencies
and CJAAC, Scott County implemented a population management
strategy to managing its jail beds. This effort reduced
jail population levels from a high monthly population
of 247 in 1998 in our facilities to a high average monthly
population of 218 in 2000. However, the Phase One
Needs Assessment clearly showed that those who now remain
in custody are charged with more serious offenses, have
a more extensive criminal history with Scott County,
and are far more difficult to divert from the system.
Even with population management efforts continuing,
periodically, the County has to lodge prisoners in other
facilities to remain within our cap. This does have
costs attached to it - not the least of which are the
costs to board and transport inmates to other facilities.
In a way, when we spend money in other County's jails,
we are helping to build and pay for a jail in that County.
At some point, financially that will no longer make
sense - particularly when there are potential risks
associated with that strategy to manage population.
Although jail population growth is not the dominant
reason why the County needs to address its jail issues,
the numberof inmates who need to be in custody are,
in fact, part of the problem.
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