KC makes $2.3 million deal to buy land for city jail right next to new Jackson County jail
Following years of discussions, Kansas City has reached an agreement to buy land for a new city jail to be built on the same site as the new $300 million Jackson County Detention Center now under construction at 7000 E. US Highway 40.
County Executive Frank White Jr. announced the land deal late Wednesday afternoon. He said the city will pay $2.3 million for property adjacent to the county jail, which when it opens late next year will replace the 40-year-old county detention center in downtown Kansas City. The county legislature will have to sign off on the agreement before it is final.
Both parties rejected suggestions that they build a joint facility, they say, because of differences in the kinds of charges people are incarcerated for at each of the facilities. People are held in the county detention center while awaiting trial on felony charges. They stay an average of 200 days, White said.
If convicted, they serve their sentences in state prison.
People held in the city’s custody, on the other hand, are detained for less serious misdemeanor charges. On average, they are held for less than two days, although some serve sentences for as much as a year. Mixing the two populations in a joint facility is inappropriate, officials say, because it can potentially mix people charged with misdemeanors with people accused of committing violent crimes.
Kansas City does not have its own jail after it closed its facility near the Truman Sports Complex in 2009. For several years after that, the city contracted with the county to hold detainees at the Regional Correctional Center, which was connected to the downtown detention center. The Kansas City Police Department followed suit a couple of years later by closing its booking and holding cells atop police headquarters, and KCPD also contracted with the county.
Both arrangements ended after some county prisoners awaiting trial for violent crimes got into the regional facility in August 2016. Two women in the city’s detention area were raped.
Since those sexual assaults, Kansas City has been farming out its detainees to jails in two rural Missouri counties. Police have had limited capacity in their patrol stations to handle bookings.
In recent months, local businesses have complained and suggested that this lack of city jail space emboldens people prone to commit property crimes because there is less likelihood of them spending the night in jail.
In response to that criticism, the Kansas City Council in September authorized spending $16 million to again add a holding area on the eighth floor of police headquarters. That holding area will have 55 beds.
The new city jail could have as many as 250 beds, but it could be fewer. Voters will be asked next spring to approve funding for that project. Some studies have put the cost of a new city jail at more than $200 million, but it could be far less than that, says Councilman Crispin Rea, who has been at the forefront of the project.
“There is a strong desire for it to cost substantially less,” he said via text message Wednesday evening. “I truly don’t know what the updated estimate will be and what decisions we may make that could impact the cost.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 9:02 AM.
