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Mecklenburg County commissioners agreed Tuesday to move ahead with plans for a new 1,700-bed jail, but they set up a tense debate for coming months: How to pay for that project without cutting back on money for school construction?
County leaders hope to open part of the jail on Spector Drive as soon as 2014.
The detention center is expected to cost an estimated $220 million to $240 million.
But meeting that goal probably will require commissioners to devote a major portion of construction spending in the short term on the jail, taking away from money that might otherwise pay for new schools, parks or libraries.
Commissioners agreed earlier this spring to cap the amount they borrow for construction in the coming years as part of efforts to get a better handle on debt.
Under the plan, the county would borrow no more than $150 million in 2010-11, and $253 million in each of the following three years.
When county staff first pitched the idea, one scenario showed spending a little over a third of the money each year on the jail, which was originally priced at $355 million.
However, County General Manager Michelle Lancaster told commissioners Tuesday they now anticipate needing $80 million for the jail in 2010-11 – just over half of the available bond money for that year. An additional $100 million would be needed the next year.
Commissioners will debate later this fall on how to divide up the limited pool of bond money, and some predicted the talk will be difficult.
“There are going to be some tough choices, I think for us to make and for the school board to have to make,” said Commissioner Bill James”
In recent years, the largest share of money borrowed for construction has gone for projects for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Commissioner Dumont Clarke said the cost of building the jail “is going to make it much more difficult, really almost impossible, for us to build schools at the same rate that we were hoping to do and other needed government facilities.”
The county has been planning for a new jail for years as a way to help address current overcrowding and a predicted growth in the jail population.
Mecklenburg currently has three detention centers: Jail Central in uptown, and Jail North and the newly-opened Jail Annex in northern Charlotte, with more than 2,800 beds currently. The actual capacity, however, is smaller because officials separate men from women and older inmates from teens.
Crowding has been an issue at the jails for years, and at times hundreds of inmates have had to sleep on the floor.
A 2008 consultant's report estimated the county would need about 4,500 new jail beds by 2030 based on projected growth. But it said that number could be reduced by about 23 percent with reforms to the local criminal justice system.
The county has made some changes recently, including allowing some offenders to be monitored with electronic bracelets instead of going to jail. Soon, leaders will study whether to revamp the pre-trial release program.
However, the consultants report and county leaders said that even with those reforms, the county will still need to build a jail. Sheriff Chipp Bailey said “it's critical that we stay proactive.”
Commissioners agreed 6-2 to go ahead with the project. Dan Murrey said he wanted more time to study the project, including whether programs targeted to help people with mental illness could reduce the number of jail beds needed. Vilma Leake lamented spending money on a jail instead of other programs.
