The county also has a maximum-security jail located in the county Safety Building in downtown Troy. That section of the Safety Building also includes the sheriff’s department offices.
The proposal came from a jail assessment conducted during the past year by Henningson, Durham and Richardson Inc., or HDR. A $175,000 state grant was used to help pay for the assessment.
Sheriff Dave Duchak said HDR was charged with “taking a holistic look at the criminal justice system.”
The consultants developed three options with a new maximum security jail along with new sheriff’s department and Emergency Management agency offices recommended.
The options ranged in estimated cost from $95.3 million to $143.7 million.
The recommended option includes 200 new beds along with the reuse of the Incarceration Facility’s existing 240 minimum security beds, its lobby, laundry and food service areas among other offerings, said Matt Skarr of HDR.
The assessment team looked at the county’s incarceration needs for the next 25 years and worked to develop a solution to serve today’s changed jail population. There has been a sizeable increase in the number of females jailed and more people with mental health issues and substance abuse disorders, said David Bostwick of HDR.
The county, he said, also wanted to provide medical care where possible in house and to have the jails under one roof for staffing efficiencies.
The project would include $5.5 million in upgrades to the Incarceration Facility, which opened in 1999, The downtown Troy jail was built as part of the Safety Building in the early 1970s. It was described as obsolete.
The project also would require removal of a building south of the Incarceration Facility built several years ago to house county transit operations.
The consultants and Duchak briefly discussed the growing cost to build a jail, with Skarr pointing out material, manpower and every aspect of construction has gone up substantially in recent years with cost increases projected in each year when a facility is not built. “These prices are never going to come back. No component is going to get any cheaper,” Skarr said.
The commissioners said they would discuss the recommendation and funding options further.
“We have to take this to the voters because we don’t have this kind of money,” said Commissioner Greg Simmons. “The sales tax would be temporary along with any money we could get from the state.”
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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