A new $22 million, 196-bed jail should be big enough to take care of Douglas County's needs for at least 20 years, consultants say.
On a mid-February day, Douglas County Sheriff Loren Anderson and Undersheriff Kenny Massey were sequestered for most of the morning doing some crucial interviews.
Not with suspects.
They were interviewing candidates to help staff the new Douglas County Jail.
The $21,862,200 jail designed for 196 inmates likely will open in June. At 82,472 square feet, it will replace the current jail housed upstairs at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center since 1976.
The project, funded by a percentage of a 1-cent sales tax passed in 1994, will quadruple the space of the county's current jail.
"Our inmate population is the driving force in all of this," Anderson said during an interview.
Overcrowding, he said, impacts all aspects of the jail. "It keeps staff at max all the time. It makes everything more difficult if nothing fits anymore. There's not enough staff, not enough blankets. Even the storage area in the kitchen isn't big enough."
The average daily population of the current jail is about 90. Anderson's staff tries to keep the number of inmates at roughly 45 on any given day, which means Douglas County farms nearly half of its offenders out to neighboring communities such as Brown, Jackson and Jefferson counties. The new jail will give the county enough space to keep inmates in the same place.
Direct supervision
The new jail not only is different in size, it also is different in layout.
"Its concept of operation is completely different from the one downtown," Capt. Bob VanHoesen said.
In the new jail, the sheriff's department will house inmates in groups of cells opening into staffed common areas. The linear, direct-supervision concept isn't new, but it means new thinking and regulations for the sheriff's department.
"It's going to be completely new to all of us," he said. "There is going to be a lot more expectation of conduct."
Inmates and guards will have more interaction, and VanHoesen and his transition team were assigned the task of creating the jail's operating procedures and getting it ready to open. They've been working together for months at a trailer on-site southeast of Lawrence.
In late February, Anderson said he thought the contractors would be able to turn a portion of the building over to the sheriff's department in late March or early April.
New employees
The county is hiring 35 new employees to help staff the jail, which consultants estimate should be able to take care of the county's inmate population for at least 20 years. Its mechanical systems were designed and built to accommodate a 100-bed expansion down the road if needed.
County commissioners opted for a new jail as they searched for a home for a work-release program.
"We considered putting the work-release program in what is now part of the public works department at 13th and Massachusetts," then-commissioner Louie McElhaney recalled in a previous interview. "That was not a good site for that for a lot of reasons. From the discussion of a work-release program, it evolved into a new jail building."
The project was not an easy one for the county to undertake. The public rejected several sites before the county settled on the 22-acre tract south of Kansas Highway 10.
One of the initial sites the county considered was the parking lot south of the law enforcement building. Public outcry nixed those plans as well as other potential sites.
The current site was not officials' first choice, but it seemed to be the one most suitable, authorities said.
Courtroom included
The main level of the new jail will include a courtroom where first appearances and preliminary hearings will take place, thus cutting down on the need to transport inmates from the jail to the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, where Douglas County District Court will remain. Processing, booking and some holding and medical cells also are on the jail's main level.
The second level houses the work-release pod, a dormitory-style center. Housing continues on the third and fourth levels with day rooms and exercise and multipurpose areas. The jail also features counseling, classroom and library areas.
Anderson, for the most part, will continue to work downtown, but the jail will include a small office for him.
The county plans to open the new jail with a public reception.
"I'm anxious to show it off," VanHoesen said.
-- Deb Gruver's phone message number is 832-7165. Her e-mail address is dgruver@ljworld.com.
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