After years of controversy, Jackson County opens its new $300 million jail
A new $301 million detention center opened Thursday morning in east Kansas City, expanding Jackson County’s capacity to detain people charged with felonies while they await trial.
County officials emphasized that the detention center was completed on its projected timeline and came in slightly under budget, though in the fall they said it would be done by the end of 2025. The new detention center will ultimately replace the current county detention center in downtown Kansas City, which is more than four decades old, has fallen into partial disrepair and has long been plagued by unsafe overcrowding and allegations of abuse and mismanagement.
“This is a historic moment for Jackson County,” Kevin Harrell, the presiding judge of Missouri’s 16th Circuit, said at a Thursday morning ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new facility. “In addition to that, it is the recognition that we have to keep our staff safe. It’s the recognition that we have to keep this community safe, and most importantly, it’s the recognition that we have to deliver justice with dignity.”
The detention center spans about 470,000 square feet off of U.S. Highway 40. It currently has capacity for 1,000 beds — 200 more than the current county detention center — though future expansion has already been projected, according to the county.
The new detention center did not rely on any tax increases for Jackson County residents, Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté said. According to the county, the project was financed mostly through $262 million in bonds, along with $22 million from the county’s general fund, $10.5 million in interest earned from the bonds and $7.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding.
“This facility is the result of a strong collaboration across many partners in county government, in the justice system, and the construction design teams who helped bring it to life,” Interim County Executive Phil LeVota said Thursday morning.
Planning for the detention center kicked off at a county level in 2019, and the county purchased the land for the new detention center in 2021. The site was previously home to Heart Village Mobile Park. About 90% of Heart Village residents were relocated ahead of construction and promised $10,000 stipends, though about a dozen say they were instead served eviction notices, The Star reported in 2021.
Construction began on the new detention center in summer 2023. The facility was designed and constructed by three firms working in partnership: DLR Group, a national corrections architecture firm, along with Kansas City construction company JE Dunn and Kansas City concrete company Axiom. More than one million cumulative hours of construction work went into the facility, JE Dunn senior vice president Vance McMillan said.
One of the main motivating factors behind the new detention center’s construction is Jackson County’s steadily growing jail population, according to the county. In 2025, Jackson County jail facilities housed 1,056 people, according to county data. That number is expected to grow to about 1,150 by 2050, according to a July 2020 report from a design and real estate firm the county contracted.
“We’re not going to incarcerate our problem away, right?” Harrell said. “We want individuals to go in and be held accountable. We want to keep our community safe. We want them to come out better individuals.”
JCDC also identified poor physical conditions at the current detention center, including significant plumbing and HVAC issues, as grounds for the construction of the new facility.
“Beyond size and construction,” LeVota said, “what matters most is what this facility represents; a modern, safer and more efficient environment for the professionals that work here every day.”
The new detention center is intended to be a “calmer, more intentional environment,” Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said, featuring natural lighting and murals. The facility will also host educational programming, including job training courses.
“Most of the individuals who come through those doors will be released back to the communities from which they came,” Johnson said. “If we release them without tools, without skills, without treatment, then we have not done our jobs, and the chances that this new facility will see them over and over again is far too high.”
Jackson County legislators Venessa Huskey, Donna Peyton, DaRon McGee and Sean Smith were also in attendance and participated in a symbolic ribbon-cutting along with Johnson and LeVota. Other state and county officials in attendance included Missouri state Sen. Joe Nicola, Grandview Mayor Leonard Jones, Raytown Mayor Mike McDonough and Sugar Creek Mayor Michael Larson.
Former County Executive Frank White Jr. was also in attendance, marking one of the first public displays of solidarity between White and LeVota since the former was recalled in September. White had long championed the jail project.
