Moving day: People held in Jackson County jail transferred to new detention center
Jackson County sheriff’s staff moved people held at the downtown jail Friday to the county’s new detention center near U.S. 40 and Interstate 70, the sheriff’s office announced.
Members of the sheriff’s office, along with staff from the Missouri Department of Corrections, began the transfer at 3 a.m. Friday. Before being taken to the new jail, those being held were placed in handcuffs, waist chains and leg restraints.
Upon arriving at the jail, they were issued new clothing and assigned to housing units within the jail. During the transition to the new jail, the county provided meals at both locations. On-site medical staff was available to address healthcare needs, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office issued a press release shortly before 6 p.m. Friday that said all of its detainees from the old jail were now housed at the new jail.
“Our new facility allows us to operate more safely and efficiently while upholding our responsibility to treat every individual in our custody with dignity and respect,” Sheriff Darryl Forté said in the news release.
Jackson County officials held a ribbon-cutting in mid-March for the 470,000-square-foot facility at 7000 East U.S. 40, which cost $301 million to build. It currently has capacity for 1,000 beds — 200 more than the old county detention center — though future expansion has already been projected, according to the county.
The new facility replaced the detention center at 1300 Cherry Street, which is more than four decades old and had fallen into partial disrepair and had long been plagued by unsafe overcrowding and allegations of abuse and mismanagement.
The new detention center “represents a modern approach to incarceration, focusing on integrated support services to create a safe, efficient, and human environment for detainees and staff, while respecting the dignity of over 1,000 detained individuals,” the sheriff’s office said in the news release.
The Star’s Ilana Arougheti provided some information for this story.
