Following inmate escapes, Kansas City mayor and sheriff discuss jail arrangement
Four months after its eviction from the Jackson County Detention Center, Kansas City is once again in talks to keep its inmates and detainees there, at least temporarily.
For years, Kansas City rented space for pre-trial detainees and convicted inmates at the Jackson County jail, but when the lease expired June 25, the county declined to renew it. Kansas City sought temporary solutions while it weighed building its own jail.
One of those ideas — housing inmates at the Heartland Center for Behavioral Change — doesn’t appear to be working. Multiple inmates have escaped or been assaulted, and one has died. Now, Mayor Quinton Lucas and Sheriff Darryl Forté are in talks about a plan to once again house inmates at the county jail.
Lucas said he has concerns about the contract with Heartland, a one-year $3.2 million deal for 110 beds.
“I do not think the public is safe when people are just walking out of the detention facility,” Lucas said.
The two haven’t agreed to terms and don’t necessarily have a deal yet. Lucas said it was “more akin to an initial memorandum of understanding that we want to be back with them and I think they’re willing to work with us to facilitate that.”
It’s unclear how much an arrangement might cost. Before the contract expired, Kansas City was paying Jackson County $54 per night per inmate. In March, City Manager Troy Schulte said the city had offered as much as $73 but couldn’t meet the county’s demand of $110.
While, according to Lucas, the two are working on a 60-90 day arrangement, Forté said he’s open to “any solutions that will benefit our community.”
“We want to keep our inmates safe, of course, and we want to keep our outside community safe,” he said.
