by CHRIS ROGERS
At Winona County’s public forum on the jail last fall, one of the top things citizens wanted to know: how much will a new jail cost? Now, county officials trying to answer that question have the first piece of the puzzle: construction cost estimates.
In a preliminary estimate, Winona County’s architectural consultant pegged the cost of constructing a new jail at $21.7 million.
The county’s Jail Advisory Committee is preparing a report for the County Board this month that will include four options: first, a full-fledged jail certified to house inmates for up to a year; second, a “lockup” that could hold inmates for 90 days; third, a smaller detention facility certified to hold inmates for no longer than 72 hours; and fourth, a so-called “do nothing” option, in which the county would not have any jail. In both the second and third options, the county would rely heavily on outsourcing inmates to neighboring counties.
The committee’s report has yet to be finalized, but at the group’s last meeting architect Bruce Schwartzman of BKV Group outlined very preliminary construction cost estimates for a couple options. Schwartzman estimated that a full-fledged jail would cost $18.2 million to build and that engineering and other “soft costs” would bring the construction price tag up to $21.7 million. A 90-day facility would cost only incrementally less, Schwartzman stated. A detailed cost estimate for that option is forthcoming. The architect figured that a 72-hour hold facility would cost around $10 million to build.
Schwartzman did not provide a cost estimate for the “do nothing” option at that meeting, but it will not be free. Winona County’s current jail has been condemned by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) because it is not up to state code. DOC officials said they will shut the jail down in 2021 if the county does not replace it by then. If the county operated without any jail, it would need to shuttle inmates from neighboring jails to Winona County District Court and back. To do that, the county would need a place to house a small number of inmates temporarily — for a few hours — while they await court dates, and it would need a secure sallyport — or garage — to transfer inmates in and out of transport vehicles. The county is currently using a garage that only has one door between inmates and escape; state code requires two. To “do nothing,” the county would have to build or remodel. As the county’s jail planning consultant Tom Weber put it, “Even nothing means something.”
These estimates are not the whole picture. When it comes to figuring out each option’s total price tag, construction costs are just one piece of the equation. Over the course of a jail’s lifetime, staffing is one of the largest costs, Weber said. The DOC sets strict rules for how many staff are needed to supervise inmates depending on a jail’s design, so staffing costs vary according to a jail’s layout. More importantly, the 90-day, 72-hour, and “do nothing” options would require a significant staff of transport officers to shuttle inmates back and forth. In early projections, the committee figured the “do nothing” option could require upward of 34 full-time positions, while a 72-hour hold facility might take 27.5 full-time staff members.
Jails last for decades. Whatever Winona County builds, it will be stuck with for a long time, staffing costs included. Over years, a few extra staff positions can add up to millions of dollars. Even if one option costs $4 million less to construct, if the inmate transportation costs an extra $1 million per year, the upfront savings will disappear quickly, county administrator Ken Fritz pointed out. “In four years, it’s gone,” he said.
The committee is preparing total cost estimates for each option that will take into account all of those variables.
The Jail Advisory Committee is expected to finalize its report by the end of the month. The County Board will face conflicting priorities in deciding what to do. The decision to build a new jail or not will have a huge impact on the local justice system and taxpayers, and it arguably deserves careful thought. On the other hand, the county is under the gun. County officials said that even if the county had started design this fall, it would be hard-pressed to finish construction of a new jail before the DOC shuts down the existing jail.
Chris@winonapost.com