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Jail consultant: ‘Need to know very soon’ on construction budget

By Lucas González

Posted June 25, 2024

A shot of the door to the Monroe County Correctional Facility.

Front signage of the current Monroe County Jail. (WTIU/WFIU News)

A representative with the firm that will design a new Monroe County Jail says he needs to know soon what the project’s construction budget will be.

DLZ Project Manager Scott Carnegie gave that update to county council members at a Tuesday meeting during a discussion of the jail project.

“The cost of the jail is directly impacted by the square footage,” Carnegie said. “The square footage is directly impacted by the bed count. We will need to know very soon what the budget is. So, when I say budget, that means square footage, which also relates to the bed count; they are all three connected.”

Another project consultant, RQAW, recently completed a feasibility study which recommends Monroe County build a jail with 450 to 500 beds. The current jail has 294 beds.

Officials have frequently cited a desire to build not just a new jail, but a co-located justice center, which would include space for courts and other services. DLZ previously estimated the construction of a co-located facility could cost between $142 million and $152 million.

But on Tuesday, a representative of the local construction company Weddle Bros. presented the council its estimates for construction of a new jail. The company puts the construction budget somewhere between $144 and $160 million. Carnegie said DLZ worked with Weddle Bros. on these estimates.

Based on a county finance meeting last week, achieving this might be possible; but it could require raising a local income tax specific to the jail project.

The 25-year tax started collecting this year at a rate of 0.01 percent. Last week, county financial consultant Financial Services Group (FSG) recommended boosting the tax to 0.2 percent. An FSG representative told the council doing this could generate nearly $86 million in revenues.

If the council combines this with its share of an economic development tax passed by the Bloomington City Council in 2022, the budget could be closer to $211 million, according to FSG.

Members of the public who oppose the new jail expressed to the council Tuesday that they oppose burdening taxpayers with an even larger jail.

Several people took turns blasting the council, saying they oppose the jail’s prospective price tag and sheer scale. Many of their comments were sarcastic in tone.

Maggie McLaughlin spoke not from her own experience, but from the perspective of a hypothetical mother arrested on a drug offense.

“Losing my freedom, my daughter and my dignity sure was tough, but now I see it was all for the best,” McLaughlin said. “The criminal record I earned was the cherry on top. It made sure I couldn't get a job or housing which really helped me focus on what's important in life: survival.”

McLaughlin suggested addiction treatment, housing and mental health services as better alternatives, sarcastically adding, “Thank you for investing your dollars into solutions that really work. I can attest to how the jail is the best way to address homelessness, drug abuse and mental health crises.”

McLaughlin and others’ comments followed an event organized by the anti-jail group Care Not Cages held in the Monroe County Courthouse square just before the council meeting.

The proposed local income tax increase could become effective as soon as Aug. 31, if the council enacts it before Aug. 31, according to a county attorney.

Carnegie said the project is still early in the pre-design phase, which includes planning for jail programming, master planning and conceptual design. He says those last two components are site-specific.

The phases that follow pre-design include schematic design, development, and eventually bidding and construction, according to Carnegie.

In other words, it will likely be a while until construction starts.

Council members have said they understood the county commissioners would decide the jail’s bed count — but the commissioners recently put that responsibility on the council and sheriff.

Attempts to decide where the jail will be built, which the commissioners have led, are ongoing.