Separate jails for Kansas City and Jackson County? That makes absolutely no sense
Elected officials in Kansas City and Jackson County must redouble efforts to reach a cost-effective agreement on constructing a single new jail for use by both jurisdictions.
It’s never too late to save money.
Jackson County is building a new jail on the site of the old Heart Mobile Village trailer park on U.S. Highway 40. Building a separate city jail nearby, or anywhere else for that matter, would almost certainly mean unnecessary added expense for taxpayers, and should be avoided.
The new county jail is expected to cost around $256 million, providing 1,244 beds (although inflationary pressure could change the project). It’s expected to be easier and cheaper to operate and maintain than the current jail downtown, which is an outdated disaster.
Kansas City has jail needs, too. Wednesday, the city held 94 municipal court inmates in rural jails in Vernon County in Nevada, Missouri, or in the Johnson County jail in Warrensburg.
Sending Kansas City inmates to far-away jails is not only enormously expensive — it’s a major inconvenience for the family and friends of those incarcerated. Shipping Kansas City inmates to other counties can’t be a permanent solution.
But building a new city jail to house 100 prisoners would be massively expensive, too. One estimate suggests a new city jail would cost $200 million, which is an unbelievable sum: That would be about $2 million per bed. It’s a non-starter.
Even expanding the city jail to 300 beds, as some have discussed, is not cost-effective. It’s also bad criminal justice: If Kansas City must house 300 inmates a day on municipal charges, it needs to reexamine its code, its policing methods and the efficiency of its municipal court.
No. It’s clear to almost everyone that Kansas City’s needs can and should be met by working with Jackson County to find room for additional city beds in the new county facility.
Kansas City’s record on this issue has not been good. It has hemmed and hawed about cooperation for years. “We’ve just been waiting for the city to reach out and in some way give us an idea what they have in mind,” Jackson County Executive Frank White said Monday.
More talks are possible this week. “Productive discussions continue with the county executive and sheriff,” said an email from Morgan Said, spokeswoman for Mayor Quinton Lucas. “A joint county-city jail facility (would be) exponentially cheaper and more practical than a stand-alone,” she said.
To be clear: Kansas City cannot expect Jackson County to provide jail space for free. The city must be willing to make a serious investment in the project, and provide funds for ongoing costs and operation.
Kansas City must approve a special use permit for the jail, which could be a bargaining chip.
But it’s hard to imagine a world in which two separate facilities, with separate kitchens and laundry rooms and holding cells and processing desks, are cheaper than one. We urge both sides to reach an equitable understanding, and quickly.
When that’s over, both sides can then turn their attention to the old jail, at 13th and Cherry.
The facility is unusable in almost any context. Rehabbing the structure would cost too much money, publicly or privately — and, given its current use, it’s hard to imagine any redevelopment opportunity in the building.
At the same time, an old, empty jail in the middle of downtown, just blocks from the T-Mobile Center and the Power & Light District, is unacceptable. It will have to come down.
Those talks must be ongoing, too. The new jail won’t be finished for some time — it’s more than three years away — so the decision need not be made now. But the clock ticks. Tearing down the old jail will cost money, too.
Jackson County has worked hard to figure out its jail mess. Kansas City must do what it can to be a part of a solution that saves taxpayer money and meets the area’s needs.