<p>The Johnson County jail is getting more beds in a long needed expansion.</p>
<p>Plans for the multi-million dollar expansion of the Johnson County Law Enforcement Center are nearing completion. The plans are the result of years of work by county officials and come after a state mandate ordering them to fix the overcrowded jail, a failed referendum to pay for an expansion and a tax hike on county workers.</p>
<p>The state has ordered the county to fix the problem at the jail, which currently has 322 beds for inmates at its campus on Hospital Road in Franklin. A committee made up of county leaders and law enforcement officials studied how to fix the jail for years and found that an expansion was the best way to address the issue. </p>
<p>The expansion would add more beds in a new wing of the jail, add more pull-in bays for arresting officers and revamp the intake and medical areas of the jail.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>"We have to do something. This county is growing. It is not rural Johnson County anymore," Sheriff Duane Burgess said.</p>
<p>The Johnson County Council passed an income tax earlier this year to pay for the expansion. That tax took effect last week and affects workers who live in Johnson County.</p>
<p>The latest cost estimate for the jail expansion is between $20 million and $25 million, although the exact cost will not be known until the Johnson County Board of Commissioners opens bids and selects one during a public meeting. Bidding for the job is expected to begin next month, commissioner Kevin Walls said.</p>
<p>Work on the expansion would likely begin next spring and could take about a year and a half to complete. The commissioners have scheduled a public meeting to vote on the final plans so bidding and other work can begin at the center if it is approved, Walls said.</p>
<p>The expansion’s main feature is a new building that would be built to the west of the existing jail and would be connected by a walkway. The structure would include about 74 new cells over two floors. Those cells would be designed to hold two, four or six inmates, Walls said.</p>
<p>Overall, the expansion would add more than 250 beds, Walls said.</p>
<p>All the cells are separated into 10 pods, with each pod containing a microwave, television, tables and a phone for inmates to use. An 11th pod in the extension would be used as a recreational area and a place for correctional officers to do checks on inmates, Burgess said.</p>
<p>The expansion would feature a central command center: a raised tower in the middle of all the cells, so jail workers can monitor and see all the inmates at all times, Walls said.</p>
<p>The law enforcement center’s medical facilities and inmate intake area would also get a revamp. The jail’s current medical center is not set up for the existing jail’s capacity, Burgess said.</p>
<p>"It is ill equipped and we need more space," he said.</p>
<p>Medical rooms are being added that would help doctors, dentists and mental health professionals do their jobs more efficiently when seeing inmates who need immediate treatment, Burgess said.</p>
<p>A three-bay pull in for arresting officers is being added as part of the expansion. With possibly more inmates coming in, more room is needed for officers to bring in people who have been arrested, Walls said.</p>
<p>Representatives from RQAW Corp., the Fishers-based architect and engineering firm that designed the jail expansion, spent days in the jail to see what it needed and what a typical day was like.</p>
<p>When designing and thinking about what the expansion would have, Burgess wanted a project that added more beds and was safer for inmates, he said.</p>
<p>"We aren’t building a Taj Mahal. We are building a building to keep inmates in," Burgess said.</p>
<p>Committee members who studied how to fix the jail overcrowding and were involved in plans for the expansion toured multiple jails around the state to get ideas for the project.</p>
<p>County leaders and law enforcement officials have had a say in the smallest details of the expansion, such as what colors walls would be, how strong a door would be and where cameras and tables should be placed, Walls said.</p>
<p>Overcrowding at the jail has been an issue for years.</p>
<p>The current facility was built in 1977 and the county has had to revamp the jail in response to a federal overcrowding lawsuit. The jail was remodeled and a new wing was added that raised the capacity to the jail from 104 to 299.</p>
<p>Overcrowding became an issue again and a referendum on a $23 million jail expansion project that would have added 400 beds was rejected by voters in 2010.</p>
<p>More beds were added at the jail in 2012 after an inspector with the Indiana Department of Correction found room for 23 more bunks at the request of Burgess, who was the jail commander at the time, and then-sheriff Doug Cox.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="By the numbers" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p><strong>322:</strong> Current capacity at the jail</p>
<p><strong>3:</strong> Sally ports being added</p>
<p><strong>74</strong>: Cells added with expansion</p>
<p><strong>About 250:</strong> Beds added with expansion</p>
<p><strong>11:</strong> Pods added with expansion</p>
<p><strong>1977:</strong> Year current jail was built</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If you go" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>What: Special meeting of the Johnson County Commissioners to consider the final expansion plans for the Johnson County jail</p>
<p>When: 4:30 p.m. today</p>
<p>Where: Courthouse annex, 86 W. Court St., Franklin</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
