County takes next step on jail expansion

<p>The county is taking the next steps toward a jail expansion as overcrowded conditions among inmates continue.</p>
<p>As of Wednesday morning, the Johnson County jail had 338 inmates, above the maximum capacity of 322, and the population has been high for months.</p>
<p>Now, the county is looking to hire a project manager, who would work with designers and architects to come up with a plan.</p>
<p>A committee of local officials has been meeting for months to discuss options to relieve overcrowding at the jail, including revamping the current juvenile detention center to be used as a jail. But the committee has gone as far as it can, and this is the next step that needs to be taken, Johnson County Commissioner Kevin Walls said. The committee continues discussing all options and ruling out what won’t. Part of the research includes an upcoming visit to another jail in the state to see how its operations run, Walls said.</p>
<p>But an expansion is the most likely option, he said.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to do something,” Walls said.</p>
<p>Officials are looking at a possible expansion that would go east of the current jail, and would be built as a multi-use facility, with space to house more inmates, but also room for a court and counseling and education programs, Walls said.</p>
<p>Members of that committee aren’t designers or professionals who regularly work on jail projects, which is what the county needs to move the process forward, he said.</p>
<p>“We don’t do this everyday. They do,” Walls said.</p>
<p>And he wants whoever the county hires to also bring other ideas of what could be built, he said.</p>
<p>By bringing in a project manager early in the process, that person can work with designers and architects to make sure any proposals are feasible, county attorney Kathleen Hash said.</p>
<p>The goal would be to come up with preliminary designs, showing what an expansion could look like, Hash said.</p>
<p>The county has to continue making progress toward a solution to the jail overcrowding issue in order to follow an order from the state issued last year, she said.</p>
<p>Last summer the state put the county on notice that the crowded conditions at the jail must be addressed after an inspection. At the time, the jail was housing more than 100 inmates over its capacity.</p>
<p>Initially, the county had until November 2017 to submit a plan, but that deadline was extended, Walls said. The county also continues working with the state inspector to keep him informed, he said.</p>
<p>The county will now prepare a request for proposals from project managers, which would need to be approved by the commissioners. The goal is to have someone hired by the fall, Walls said.</p>