JAIL EXPANSION APPROVED TO GO ON TO COUNCIL FOR FUNDING

26 November 2012 SPECIAL Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Jeff Hughes, President, Tom Orschell, and Shane McHenry

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Teresa Randall, County Administrator, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.

This meeting was preceded by an executive session to discuss pending litigation. Commissioners gave the administrator and attorney authority to respond and see what can be worked out.

The audience had about 20 people in addition to the jail committee members in attendance.

Terri Randall administrator presented. She went over parts of the Powerpoint presentation that Rosser presented earlier in November. The history of the project was outlined showing the original RQAW estimate of 12.8- 14.9 Million for 224 beds. The final 120 bed version was approved at $9.3 million.

Rosser was the approved architect in June 2012. Commissioners approved the schematic in November 2012.

Terri Randall chaired the jail committee of 13 members. The committee went out to see other jails to see how they did things. She said they debated and discussed and it was a very DIVERSE group. [NOTE: This jail committee did not include any outsiders – all were part of the system- not sure what she means by diverse.] This was one of the best workgroups she’d been involved with. Many of them decided things they could do without to keep the cost down. Commissioners’ responsibility is to have the type of jail we need to protect the public. Council has to decide how to fund this. Inmate population projections- she decided to get Scott Moore- from Integrus- that works with Maxwell. She said we hired him independently to go over the numbers. [NOTE: Integrus is part of the project team so they may have been hired to do numbers in addition to their contract, but they are not independent of the project.]

Scott Moore – they have been around 50 plus years and have done 300 plus projects. He was to look over the inmate population projections.  He looked at County population, Community Correction offenders, Admissions, and average daily population from the jail. He used IU Kelley school of business for population projections which shows a 12.63% increase in county population over next 30 years. He looked at home detention and work release numbers. He looked at the DOC 9 Dept of Corrections) admissions (state prisons) and these are increasing. He looked at average daily population and extrapolated at 8% to see that over 400 inmates would be here by 2035. He thinks 12% and it would be 440 inmates. And he also added the industry 15% standard to show it would be even higher. He said the 144 bed addition would be full by 2020 in the best case scenario. He went at 8, 12, and 15% growth rates to show all the scenarios. They recommend the 208 additional bed option. He said that in many cases you open a jail and in 6 months you are full.

Hughes said they haven’t looked at the entire justice system. What is the root cause of our high jail population? No answer.

Rosser’s Mark Van Allen then presented. He noted a couple words in the mission statement- FLEXIBILITY and the CHANGING Corrections landscape. The brainstorming that went on resulted in selecting a base option of 120 beds. They left ¼ of the square in the design out for future expansion. Filling that square in takes it to 144 beds TOTAL. This would not be filled out but roughed in for now. They could also add enough in that space to take it to 208 beds TOTAL. Everything is dormitory style around a central control station. He said they worked thru the sheriff’s staff to get appropriate spaces for them.

Orschell asked Mark to go over the staffing in this versus the current staffing needs. Mark Van Allen talked about video conferencing for visitation to minimize prisoner movement and need less staff. He thinks this helps not add additional staff along with the central control. They also can use video arraignment. This also cuts the circulation of prisoners and thus increases safety for the public. This also cuts transport staff. They have varying levels of commitment from the judiciary on who will use it and who won’t. [NOTE: So some of the judges don’t plan to use an item that reduces staffing? Then what happens- we pay for the technology and also for the staffing?] JCAP offices are right by the classrooms and their dorm units. They also have an 8- bed step down unit for those who have completed the program but haven’t served their time yet. The central observation has 360 degree view of all prisoners. Only JCAP is remotely monitored by camera. More options for segregating the men and women now.

Van Allen said the type of beds security-wise cut costs from the RQAW version. This version keeps 48 beds for work release also by using the old women’s section.

Budget Summary- Brad- the construction manager from Maxwell presented the budget scenarios. 120 beds for $9.3 million. 144 beds for $10.4 million. 208 beds for $11.2 million. This builds all the beds out at today’s prices. [NOTE: There was no mention of contingencies (percentages allowed for extras and items they might need to change as they go along) allowed for these scenarios.]

Budget spent so far from 693,940 allocated. 435,665 spent so far, so 258,275 remains.

These costs include what has already been spent above: Additional appropriation needed: $8,574,577- for 120 beds. This is the $9.3 million total project cost option.

$9,740,232 for 144 beds with shell for expansion and this also includes cost of bidding an alternate for the full 208 build out to be presented for future consideration. This is the $10.4 million total cost option. [NOTE: This option includes a SHELL not the cost of the extra beds, furnishings etc for that shell. That will be MORE.]

Randall said it would be prudent to look at this 144 bed option and this bidding will happen in the spring.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Richard Johnston- 76 years old- How many square feet does each prisoner have to have? It’s about 80 square ft- ACA standards for jails per Mark Van Allen.  What is the cost per year to operate this thing? Orschell said that the reports suggest that we could be staff neutral. Not sure how long this will stand. But what does it cost now? Terri said there will be additional operating costs for heat lighting etc. She did not ask the architect etc to project that as she didn’t feel they could trust those numbers yet. There will be costs for the prisoner’s food etc too. What about using empty space at Seagram’s etc? Mark Van Allen said the staffing for a separate facility would be costly and duplicate services and transport. It would be lower capital costs but increased staff costs.

Judie Howard- went over the funding and how much had been spent so far for each option. They said the public doesn’t have to vote if they took it out of gambling revenue. The $12 million was the cap for that.

Jill Rhoades – What about the commissioners who will be here after Jan 1. Hughes said they could do whatever they want after they take office.

Tom Orschell- gave his history of the jail expansion and his research on this. He talked to the judges and the drug abuse issues and the crimes associated with these addictions. Jail overcrowding is very stressful and leads to a more violent environment. He talked about the laundry etc. He looked over the tri-state area. Court diversion. Community corrections and alternative sentencing was used to reduce the jail population. 76 are probation violators and 36 of them had committed an additional crimes while on probation right now. He has sat thru JCAP and listened to their stories. They have CASA also. He found a study on the negative effect on the community from the gambling boat. He could not find a study of the methadone clinic effect. He found out about the last jail being built over inmates suing the county. He thinks he has asked every question he could on this. He said he could not vote on this Nov 7^th. He has had many sessions with Lynch and he said he would support this. He asked Kevin Lynch- future commissioner D-1 to speak.

Kevin Lynch- thanked Tom Orschell. He said there is so much better info now on this. He realizes there is a need for the jail expansion. He praised the committee etc. It’s a lot of money. To make sure you do it right the first time. I like the committee’s recommendation of 144 beds with option to increase. He does not want us to outgrow this jail before its economic life. He thinks they are on the right track. [NOTE: Lynch received $2000 for his campaign from American Structurepointe PAC which is joined with Rosser, Inc on this project.]

Orschell said that Kevin weighing in on this makes his decision harder. ????

Andy Baudendistel- as a defense attorney. One of only 15 counties with JCAP and about half have a drug court program. It is only available to people who live in Dearborn or Ohio Counties. They are targeting young opiate addicts. This plan allows us to double our jail chemical addiction program. Community corrections is stretched to its limits- no bracelets are available some times. [NOTE: Why are the inmates not paying for the ankle bracelets?] He thinks we are doing everything we can. He has been on drug court for 3 years. This will only help 48 people on JCAP.

Chris Mueller-brought up the jail statistics which show that the number of bookings have decreased since 2005 while the average daily population of the jail has increased and asked why that would be happening? Baudendistel offered the possibility that bookings were high from Witte being a judge back then and requiring people summoned to court to go over and be booked first. Mueller asked when Witte had left office and they said 2008. That would not explain the pattern completely. Bonding and defense lawyer timing plus discovery all take time too. The 90-95% of inmates who plea deal was also discussed- and why would that take so long? Mueller also asked about the statistics and data collection for the JCAP program which Baudendistel said had been around for 4 years. Raxpayers are paying to house JCAP inmates and now they are building more space into the jail for more JCAP inmates.McHenry was surprised JCAP had been around that long. Mueller said that in interviews and debates the only data offered was letters- and that was not a measure of the program. She went on to say that if the taxpayers were expected to keep funding this program there should be data. In a business the board answers to the stockholders (taxpayers in this case) and they have a right to know how their money is being spent and what the success rate is on the programs offered. There should be scientific data on JCAP and alcohol/drug court. And it should have been there from the start. It takes several years to measure this- but the data should be there for the first 4 years. We need to have all the parties involved in this from the judges, prosecutor, jail commander, sheriff, and defense attorneys look at what they can do to keep that jail from being filled up too fast. We owe it to the taxpayers who are paying for all of this.

Close Public Comment:

Shane McHenry- 120 beds won’t get the job done. Bandaid. Agrees with the committee on the 144 bed option. He thinks they can solve the problem and have the space IF they need it in the future. We have been talking about this for almost 2 years. He agrees with Chris . He praised Tom Orschell and Terri also. McHenry moved to send a recommendation for the 144 beds. Orschell said with Lynch’s backing he feels he can vote for this so he seconded it. Two ayes.

Chair votes Nay- Hughes said he can’t in good conscious vote for this.

Passed to go on to Council for funding.

Meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township