Sheriff: Jail expansion "suspended"
JANESVILLE — The $56 million jail expansion scrapped by the Rock County Board in 2006 will stay in the trash.
And thoughts of a smaller jail expansion have been abandoned, too.
"I'm not going to ask to move it forward," Sheriff Bob Spoden said. "The expansion is suspended."
But just in case the county decides sometime in the future to expand or renovate the jail, Spoden will ask for $35,000 payable to The Samuels Group of Wausau for a construction phasing plan. The study will outline construction priorities for jail improvements as the county board sees fit to make them, Spoden said.
The public safety and justice committee Monday night unanimously voted to pay Samuels the $35,000. The general services committee did the same this morning.
The county board could vote on the question at its Thursday, Sept. 25, meeting.
Last summer, the cost for studying jail expansion since 1998 hit $1.7 million. Recent plans include:
-- 2005—Potter Lawson architects was paid $232,000 to create a schematic design for a jail with room for 1,000 beds. The price tag for the renovations and expansion was estimated at $56 million.
-- 2006—Potter Lawson was moving onto the next phase, design development, when the county board halted work in an effort to lower the cost of the expansion.
-- July 2007—The county board voted to pay $530,000 to Potter Lawson for a new schematic design for a scaled-down jail expansion, Assistant Rock County Administrator Josh Smith said.
The board also approved $87,000 to James Robertson of Voorhis/Robertson Justice Services to help the county plan for the transition to an expanded facility and to calculate space needs for staffing an expanded jail, Smith said.
-- October 2007—Spoden presented to county committees his own plan that included a 918-bed jail with three new housing units. Spoden said he did not know what the cost would be, only that it would be less than the $56 million plan presented by former Sheriff Eric Runaas.
If the county board decides to go ahead with renovation or expansion, both of the 2007 studies will be valid, Smith said.
The Samuels study also will remain useful until it's needed, Spoden said. While Potter Lawson draws design plans, Samuels' expertise is in on-the-ground construction planning, he said.
Spoden said the priorities for jail improvement could be phased in this order:
-- Improving the booking office, medical facilities and kitchen.
-- Increasing inmate housing.
-- Expanding administrative space.
"The board has the ability to spread (renovating) out, if you even do it," Spoden said.
Spoden doesn't want to ask voters for money to expand the jail during such tough economic times, he said.
In addition, he thinks diversion programs such as the electronic monitoring bracelet and Workenders, which allow some inmates to serve their time at home or through volunteer work, will continue to ease crowding at the jail.
On Monday, 69 inmates were serving time on electronic monitoring. Twenty inmates served in Workenders the weekend of Sept. 13 and 14, according to sheriff's office data.
Cmdr. Tom Gehl said 522 inmates were in the jail Monday. The jail has a rated capacity of 477 and a total of 525 beds.
Sep 17, 2008 at 12:21 a.m.
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bjordan, I see your criticisms are pretty specific. I would agree that the COs should have reasonably comfortable chairs in good repair.
Sep 16, 2008 at 11:47 p.m.
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janesvillean,
Yes jail is suppose to be uncomfortable for the inmates but not the workers. All I'm saying is they should have remodeled the Unit Booths that the CO's have to set in for 8 or 12 hours. The Co's in the booths get hand me down chairs to sit in. The chairs are either slightly broken or dusty. But take a walk down the administration side of the sheriff office and see what type of chairs the Sheriff and the Cheif Deputy has. You'll think you're in the Oval Office with Bush and Cheney. T
he control booth in the Unit Booths is very much outdated and last but not least, the central control booth; the entire system is old! You can barley get any replacement parts for either.
Those are just a few areas that I feel should have been on the list to get remodeled before the Administrative Offices.
Sep 16, 2008 at 8:01 p.m.
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ap2533jvl good post. but you forgot one item
bologna sandwich 3 times a day and pb&j on sunday .
Sep 16, 2008 at 3:17 p.m.
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Isn't jail supposed to be uncomfortable? I dont care if there arn't enough bed. Stay out of trouble and be a good person my god is it really that hard to do.
Sep 16, 2008 at 3:13 p.m.
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marymac4, you seem unaware of the Workenders program that does exactly what you describe.
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liltiger, you are exactly correct. Many people do not seem to connect their "get tough on crime" demands with their "keep my taxes low" demands. Jails and prisons cost money, to build and to run, while many other approaches yield better results for less money. They just don't give the same "we're spanking them now" feedback for the voters.
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And bjordan, I'm not sure what your point is. Are the sheriff's deputies supposed to have facilities equivalent to the prisoner areas? If we are expanding out-of-jail programs then we obviously need space to administer those programs. As it is, the current proposal is to make do.
Sep 16, 2008 at 2:42 p.m.
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"Spoden doesn't want to ask voters for money to expand the jail during such tough economic times, he said" I applaud Sheriff Spoden for this decision.
Sep 16, 2008 at 2:24 p.m.
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good post billnewbie. i want to elaborate on the domestic violence part. i recently had a convo with an ADA of rock county. as is my nature;) i inquired as to what kind of cases they saw the most. he told me that his boss(DA) let them know that 20% of ALL cases were for domestic abuse. my follow up question was what percentage of those are alcohol related?? 'pretty much all of them' was his answer. thats one in freakin five cases, NOT EVEN COUNTING owi's or any other drunk driving charge, that is caused by alcohol. im not sayin we need to ban alcohol to fix this jail overcrowding or any other problem....but you cant deny that alcohol is a financial burden on society and the system we currently have in place is NOT working. ugghhhh the 'eviler of two evils'......
Sep 16, 2008 at 2:11 p.m.
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I am glad Sheriff Spoden ultimately came to this resolve. Unfortunately, it would have been nice 1.7 million dollars ago...
Sep 16, 2008 at 1:29 p.m.
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On July 4th I posted the following comment on the same subject. At the time I was excoriated for my opinion on the grounds that we spend 10 times more money on corrections as we do on education which is actually the other way around. One person claimed I libeled people with my liberal use of the word scofflaw, and one even called me a racist. At the risk of reading the same squawks from rattling that cage again, here’s what I wrote:
Of all the things that government does, dealing with crime and punishment is a primary function.
Rock County has gang problems, drunken driving problems and drug use problems with the subsequent criminal activity that it spawns. The county has problems with people refusing to support their children, domestic violence problems, vandalism and even chronic traffic law violators. It has problems with many more such “petty” crimes of a non-violent nature.
Are we to buy electronic bracelets for all of these law breakers so they can sit at home watching T.V. and eating Twinkies while paying their debt to society? Is that what we are going to make them pay from now on? Are we to believe that after serving hard time at home playing video games and talking on the phone, these scofflaws will have learned their lesson and never violate the law again? Will their friends and acquaintances observe the depravation they suffer as a result of their crimes and be influenced to stay on the “straight and narrow” themselves?
We build jails and send law breakers there both as object lessons (crime doesn’t pay) and to suspend the criminal careers of the inmates at least for the time they are held in custody for the protection of the public and its property.
Drug treatment is fine, provided the drug user wants to be helped and will actually show up for treatment, both of which incarceration supplies motivation for at least to some degree.
Sep 16, 2008 at 12:10 p.m.
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Did he say improve administrative offices? That's funny because that part was already done when he became sheriff. Especially his office and the chief deputies office. They even got brand new furniture and not that cheap stuff either. They don't give a care about the jail or its officers. I advise people to take a jail tour one day and ask to be taken to the administrative side..you'll notice its like walking into a different world. Don't let this stuff fool you. They already got some money, remodeled their side and left the jail the way it is. Now imagine if they actually got approved for the 56 million dollars, the administrative side would be a mansion and the jail would look the same as it does now. How amazing!
Sep 16, 2008 at 11:56 a.m.
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Thank you, Sheriff Spoden.
Sep 16, 2008 at 11:15 a.m.
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I also find it strange that there are barely any comments under this article yet considering how many people are commenting and pissed off under the articles about criminals getting "deals" for probation from the DA. If our jail was bigger maybe they would have more room to lock up all these people!
Sep 16, 2008 at 11:04 a.m.
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marymac, personally I think putting people in jail that dont pay their child support is a good thing. Those people need to learn a lesson and having them sitting in the comfort of thier own home while on the braclet is just not doing it. I personally dont have children but my sister does and the fact that she gets no child support and the dad gets away with it makes me very angry!
Sep 16, 2008 at 10:47 a.m.
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There would be room at the RCSD INN if they didnt lock up everyone the has a charge. think about it library fines parking tickets ETC ETC..... Lock the real criminals there and look to find solutions for petty crap. House aresst, electonic monitor program whatever it takes to cut down on cost.....They put people in jail for child support lol they sure are not working sitting there. when they get out they are deeper in debt to the system, as they didnt pay any support while sitting in jail......Unpaid fines give them community service!!! (ROAD GANG) There are ways to avoid costly expansions and Rock Co. needs to look at the whole picture and figure out solutions that save the high costs. They send inmates to other facilties at the tax payers expence as they pay to house them elsewhere.The inmates having 3 meals and a cot is not costing them a dime they save housing costs on the outside. Charge even those without huber and they most likely wont come back to the HOTEL ROCK........ THE ONES WITH JOBS AND OR HUBER PRIVILEDGES HAVE TO PAY 16 DOLLARS EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT WORKING THE ONES WITHOUT HUBER PRIVILEDGES GET A FREE RIDE.......
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