27/10/2024
Vigo County knows how much its new jail is going to cost. Why not Allen county?
“It's past time for transparency on the largest county project ever, particularly the estimated operational expenses for the new jail. Without them, residents won't begin to know its true cost.”
(Full article follows: “On Oct. 7, Weigand Construction began work on the new Allen County Jail. Workers are transporting truckloads of stone to the 2911 Meyer Road site, preparing a base for new roads. A concrete pad for the jail is expected to be poured next month.
Two years after federal Judge Damon Leichty ruled the existing facility didn't meet constitutional standards due to overcrowding, the county still hasn't shared estimates of annual operating costs for the new $316 million jail.
Years of ignoring the appalling conditions at the existing downtown jail forced the county's decision to build a new one. But with no estimate of annual operating expenses, it's difficult for residents to comprehend the project's actual cost.
The current jail has an annual operating cost of $17,960,748. Commissioner Nelson Peters told The Journal Gazette Wednesday he has seen the anticipated operating expense estimate for the new facility, but declined to share the figure.
"That's probably a question better left for the sheriff because he's the guy who's developed that budget," he said.
No operating budget for the new facility has yet been established, said the sheriff's Public Information Officer Sgt. Adam Griffith on Thursday. What's more, the commissioners' Chief of Staff Chris Cloud said the new jail will be larger than originally announced.
"Weigand bid the jail as four pods, with a fifth pod as an alternate, just in case bid numbers were high," he said. "They were slightly lower than budgeted, so we are doing the fifth pod."
The expected capacity of the new jail will be 1,386 beds, Cloud said, 64 more than the original 1,322-bed estimate. The sheriff's department anticipates 211 correctional officers will be required to run the new facility, 39 more than the budgeted 172 officers for the current jail.
Griffith said there are no plans to make beds within the new facility available to the state and other counties to house their offenders on a per diem basis. Why then does the county need a new jail nearly twice as large as the current facility?
Overall, Allen County's courts, prosecutors and community corrections have been inventive in keeping people out of jail, offering counters to incarceration, lowering recidivism and protecting citizens. It is reasonable to ask whether the current jail plan builds on the successes of our innovative alternatives or represents an expensive step back to the lock-'em-up philosophy of an earlier time.
Utility costs at the new jail will fall under a budget controlled by the commissioners. But until it is open and operating, Cloud said in March, there isn't much to project.
"We pay those expenses now in a building whose main structures are 20-, 30- and 40-plus years old, so we know the new building will be more efficient in its use of electricity and gas," he said. "But water usage is completely dependent on the number of inmates."
Furthermore, the commissioners plan to include rehabilitation services for inmates. What will that price tag be?
Vigo County, like Allen, was forced to build a new jail, which opened in November 2022 after U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled in September 2018 conditions were unconstitutional at the old one.
Six months after the judge's ruling, the Vigo County Commissioners released annual operational and utility costs for the new jail. The estimates, from DLZ Architects/Construction Services and Crowe accounting, were in the commissioners' hands before a site for the new jail was even determined.
The final funding piece for the new Allen County Jail, the nearly $6 million in the county's economic local income tax revenue to be moved annually to the commissioners' budget to pay the bond for the jail, is approved. With funding identified, the county's finance teams are in the process of issuing bonds. Those are to be sold on Nov. 13, with a closing before Thanksgiving, Cloud said. At that time, all funding should be identified and in place for the project.
It's past time for transparency on the largest county project ever, particularly the estimated operational expenses for the new jail. Without them, residents won't begin to know its true cost.
