By KEN de la BASTIDE
Tribune enterprise editor
December 26, 2006 12:01 am
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A consultant recommends Miami County officials replace its current jail with a 225-bed facility.
The county’s current facility has been used since 1983, prompting a needs assessment study completed by Illinois-based Kimme & Associates. The firm said the county will need 250 beds by 2030.
The study showed a prototype of a 225-bed facility that would cost an estimated $18 million.
To pay for the cost of constructing a new facility, Miami County voted to implement a 0.25 percent county option income tax to finance the issuance of bonds.
Miami County is considering building a jail at Grissom Aeroplex, the former Grissom Air Force Base or the North Miami County Industrial Park, near the fairground.
The facility would contain an estimated 93,000 square feet and house the jail and Miami County Sheriff’s Department offices.
The jail is currently located downtown, across from the Miami County Courthouse.
“The county owns both those properties,” Sheriff Ken Roland said Thursday. “There would be no land acquisition costs.”
David Bostwick, a consultant with Kimme & Associates, said Friday the basic concept for the new facility was a large pod that would allow for future expansion by constructing additional pods.
The new facility would include 28 beds for female inmates and six beds for female maximum security.
“The female population is growing across the country,” Bostwick said. “They are getting more involved in drug manufacturing and distribution.”
The proposal includes flexible housing that could be used for either male or female inmates depending on the classification needs of the facility, he said. Classifications used in the assessment include maximum, medium and minimum security; disciplinary detention; medical; and administrative segregation.
Bostwick said a part of the needs assessment was the needs of the sheriff department and the original idea was to house the department at the new jail facility.
“County officials want to look at converting the current jail facility to house the operations of the Sheriff’s Department,” he said. “We also looked at the renovation and expansion of the current jail, which is landlocked in the downtown area.”
A new facility would require a minimum of 11 acres, and both the Grissom Aeroplex and North Miami County Industrial Park are large enough, according to Bostwick.
Bostwick said they were to develop a new jail facility on the assumption that $18 million would be available.
“We wanted to propose a facility that would last 25 years,” he said. “Normally when a new facility is open there is extra beds that can be rented to other law enforcement agencies. That income helps offset the cost of the required additional staffing.”
Regarding the jail, Roland said nothing has been decided and that the county hasn’t hired an architect to design a facility.
Miami County commissioners would make the final decision on where a new jail would be constructed.
“I was pleased with the study,” Roland said. “It was a fair assessment based on what our jail population will be in the future.”
Previously Roland said the location would not be a problem for the department and video conferencing between the jail and courthouse would minimize the number of inmates being transported on a daily basis.
Earlier this year, Bostwick said the jail’s daily inmate population is between 70 and 80 in a building with a capacity of 50.
Ken de la Bastide can be reached at (765) 454 -8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com
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