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Even as the local crime rate and jail population fall, Mecklenburg County leaders will present a plan next month to build a $200 million, 1,700-bed jail in north Charlotte.
Sheriff Chipp Bailey said he hopes construction on a new six-story jail, to be built next to two other detention centers on Spector Drive, could start next fall and be completed by 2014.
But whether the county can meet that goal will be up to county commissioners, who would have to approve the project and are struggling to keep the county's debt down.
They also must balance it with competing needs with more popular appeal, such as new schools and recreation centers.
The county for years has been discussing the need for a new jail to alleviate overcrowding that has had hundreds of inmates sleeping on the floor, and to handle projected growth in the inmate population.
A 2008 consultant's study found the county will need about 4,500 new jail beds by 2030 if the inmate population grows as expected.
Commissioners tentatively agreed last summer to spend up to $355 million on a jail.
But the county hasn't yet borrowed any money for the jail as leaders try to pare spending on new projects.
Some commissioners say they know the need for a jail is there, but with money for construction limited in the next few years, they must consider other projects as well.
“We know we have to build one,” said commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts. “The question is timing, and the question is how do you balance that with the need we still have for new schools and recreation centers and parks that have been promised to neighborhoods for years.”
Bailey said he doesn't think the county should wait too long. He said the jail population has dropped 7 percent in the past year, partly due to the drop in crime and partly because of improvements in court and jail management.
“With crime down, we've got a little breathing room,” Bailey said. “But we don't have much.
“Crime is not going to stay down. Mecklenburg County is growing. And with that growth will come more inmates. As the population grows we've got to plan for that increase.”
Crowding persists
Mecklenburg has three jails – Jail Central in uptown and Jail North and Jail Annex at the Spector Drive location – with more than 2,800 beds. Bailey said the actual capacity is about 2,500 because officials separate men from women, and older inmates from teens.
Crowding has persisted over the years. Jail Central was full within months after it opened in 1997 with 1,004 beds. Before long, a hundred inmates at a time were sleeping on the floor. The county expanded that jail a few years later by 900 beds.
Last August, the jail population hit 2,900, with as many as 500 inmates sleeping on plastic beds on the floor because there weren't enough cells. From April to June, the jails held a daily average of 2,355 inmates.
The county has launched a series of court- and jail- management efforts in the past year to help relieve crowding, said County General Manager Michelle Lancaster. Among the changes were measures to move cases faster through the courts, allowing some offenders to be monitored with electronic ankle bracelets instead of going to jail, and adding 15 beds to a diversion program for people with mental illnesses.
The crowding also has been eased by this week's opening of Jail Annex. More than 100 minimum-security inmates moved into the 320-bed housing unit. The site also includes the shell for an additional 320-bed housing unit for future needs.
The county is looking for other ways to manage the jail population. Some have suggested the county shouldn't detain so many federal or misdemeanor inmates.
Mecklenburg's jails have held as many as 500 federal inmates at a time. The federal government pays Mecklenburg $109 a day per inmate.
Bailey said the arrangement helps the county by generating as much as $20 million a year that is used to help operate the jails. Most of the federal inmates, he said, would be in jail anyway on state charges and the county would get no money to house them.
About 500 other inmates have been charged with misdemeanors, mostly nonviolent crimes, Bailey said.
“I don't make the decision of who will be held in jail,” the sheriff said. “Judges make that decision. If inmates can't make their bond, I can't let them out.”
Lancaster said she hopes the new housing units at Jail Annex and the other management initiatives will continue to help alleviate crowding.
But she and others said even with those changes, the county still needs a new jail.
“It's going to be very difficult for us to just totally say we don't need the project,” Roberts said. “I think that is just not a reality.”
Looking to cut costs
Voters approved more than $180 million in bonds for construction of the county's central and north jails. The annex will cost up to $20 million more.
Although commissioners tentatively approved up to $355 million for a new jail, officials are trying to whittle the price tag. The latest proposal would cost about a third less than what the consultant recommended last year. Among the cost savings: replacing some single-cell pods with cheaper dormitory pods.
County administrators could still make changes before the proposal is presented to commissioners Sept. 1.
Commissioner Dumont Clarke, who chairs the community health and safety committee, said it sounds like the county has “made a herculean effort to reduce the cost and I'm glad to hear that.”
Roberts and commissioner Harold Cogdell also said they felt the earlier $355 million price tag was too high.
But commissioners said even though the cost for the jail has dropped, the board expects a tough debate over how quickly work can start on the project.
Commissioners agreed this year to restrict how much new debt the county borrows in coming years, but haven't yet decided how to split the pool of money among projects. If the county were to devote most of the money toward the jail, it would mean other projects – such as schools and parks – would be delayed in order for the county to stay within its debt targets.
Commissioners will begin that debate in the fall.
“I do recognize that we have a great deal of competing needs, but one of those needs is public safety,” Cogdell said. “But that is just one of many needs the county is mandated to address.”
Bailey said it's important for the county to act soon.
“We can't just drop water and watch a jail pop up out of the ground,” he said. “We need to be proactive and plan for the future. I don't think the citizens of this community would want us to be in a position where we're not able to house people who have been arrested.”
