Commission, architect meet on jail

By Adam Rollins, Record Staff Writer
Posted 11/7/19

Warren County officials are considering relocating the sheriff’s administrative offices to the courthouse basement to accommodate a growing inmate population at the jail. Commissioners met with  …

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Commission, architect meet on jail

Posted
Warren County officials are considering relocating the sheriff’s administrative offices to the courthouse basement to accommodate a growing inmate population at the jail.Commissioners met with Treanor Architects Feb. 14 to begin talks on expanding housing in the county jail.On any given day, the jail holds a mix of local arrestees, out-of-county inmates, and suspects being held on federal warrants.The two-story jail at the Warren County Courthouse was built in 1997 to hold 106 inmates. But a spike in the number of local inmates pushed the average daily population up to 127 last year, Sheriff Kevin Harrison previously told the Warren County Record.That impacts the jail in two ways — the space is more crowded, that could lead to flaring tempers among inmates, and the county can’t accept as many federal inmates. Federal payments to hold those inmates have become a significant source of funding for the jail — an expected $692,400 in 2017.Expanding the available housing space would relieve crowding and prevent the county from having to reduce its intake of federal inmates. That’s why Warren County commissioners and Sheriff Harrison met last Tuesday with Sharon Schmitz of Treanor Architects.Treanor was the architect for the current county administration building and a small jail renovation in 2012.County officials have said they don’t believe the public would support a tax increase or bond issue to facilitate new construction, requiring expansion to be funded from within the county’s existing budget.That’s why commissioners are considering vacating the sheriff department’s offices — which are adjacent to the first floor of the jail — to build new inmate housing in their place. The sheriff’s department would be relocated to the courthouse’s basement, occupying former health department offices and space currently used for storage.“The location of the basement under two floors of jail is not prime real estate for office relocation. Under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t want to do that,” Harrison said. “It’s become a necessary option to try to do an expansion without looking at tax increases.”Harrison hopes the move and renovation will buy up to 10 years, either for county revenues to improve for additional expansion, or for the county and judiciary to find a way to reduce the jail population.Choosing renovation as the answer breeds more questions. How many inmates could fit in the new space? Would existing kitchen and laundry facilities be adequate to support more inmates? How would the department handle more jail visitation? What structural improvements would need to be made to handle the increased weight of reinforced cell walls?Harrison said he wants to add 50-75 beds. Two rough floor plans suggested by Schmitz would add about 30-60 in a combination of dormitories and medium-security cell blocks.Dormitories are open rooms in which prisoners have freedom of movement 24/7. In a cell block, prisoners are allowed into a sizable common room during the day, but locked in small, secure cells at night and during trouble incidents.“(Having) all dorms would get you the most beds,” Schmitz said. “Your dorms are generally considered minimum security. ... Maxing out, you could get almost 80 beds in there.If what you’re looking for is more medium security, we could do a 24-bed (cell block) unit and another 12-bed dorm.”Dorms pose something of a security risk for jail staff, in that larger groups of inmates in a single room are more difficult to control, Harrison said. However, the freedom of movement in the dorm may be an incentive for good behavior because inmates don’t want to be put in a cell, he said.No matter what type of housing the county and the sheriff’s department decide on, the outer walls of the inmate’s quarters would have to be reinforced with concrete blocks or steel panels.“When we did the dorm (in 2012), we did steel because we were trying to maximize the square feet. The block walls take up more space,” Schmitz said. “There was also a weight issue. ... Would we have to beef up the steel structure if we put all these (block) walls on top of it? My gut says we would have to do steel cells again.”Harrison also brought up additional jail needs that could be addressed in the improvement, such as suicide watch and solitary confinement cells. And, of course, the lower level of the courthouse would have to be assessed for any renovations to meet the sheriff department’s needs.While making those plans, commissioners said, the county will have to keep in mind that it doesn’t have a large pool of funds, as it did when work on the current administration building began.Commissioner Hubie Kluesner asked Schmitz to work with the sheriff and settle on specific details of the project, then come up with an estimate for what the expansion might cost. He said he has a number in mind for what the county might spend from its capital improvement fund, but that he didn’t want to tip his hand.

The Warren County Courthouse and attached jail were constructed in 1997. In an effort to address jail crowding, county officials have requested an architect draft a plan to convert what is now the sheriff's office into additional jail space. Record photo.


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