Plan will pave the way for future jail expansion
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Catherine Arens,left, and Anderson Sanchez work on landscaping at the Stateline Youth Sports Complex in Beloit for their Rock County Sheriff Department mid-week Workender program.
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Mike Kimpel spreads landscaping gravel at the Stateline Youth Sports Complex near Beloit while in the Workends program at the Rock County Sheriff Department.
JANESVILLE — The Rock County Jail won’t get bigger anytime soon.
That’s a big turn-around from 2006, when the sheriff’s department pitched a $56 million expansion plan to the county board.
Although adding space at the jail isn’t on the horizon, the county board Thursday night paved the way for an expansion sometime in the future.
The board unanimously approved a $35,000 contract with The Samuels Group, Wausau, to complete a phasing plan to expand the jail when or if the county decides to do so.
The $35,000 plan is the latest is a series of jail studies and plans since 1998 that as of last summer had a combined cost of $1.7 million.
Recent plans include:
-- 2005—Potter Lawson architects were 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 to 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.
Spoden said today’s economy is not the right time to ask residents to pay to expand the jail.
He said better management of the population in the crowded jail has lessened the need for immediate expansion.
Since Spoden took office in January 2007, he has greatly increased the number of inmates in jail alternative programs. On Thursday, 81 inmates were staying at home on electronic monitoring bracelets. Before Spoden took office, the daily number was closer to 12.
This summer, he brought the last of the inmates housed in other jails back to Rock County and started the Workenders program, which lets inmates serve time they owe for unpaid fines by doing volunteer work for local nonprofits.
Sep 27, 2008 at 1:08 a.m.
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I say we get violent with the non violent. Maybe they will start to behave,
Sep 26, 2008 at 9:27 p.m.
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You must've seen that prison show on TV too,I think that is a grrrrrrreat idea myself. Doing ditch clean up,with chains on,i would love to see that to.
Sep 26, 2008 at 7:47 p.m.
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Tents. Tents with heaters!
Sep 26, 2008 at 5:10 p.m.
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If you spend enough money on consultants and designs, then you have enough scapegoats, so when anything goes wrong, you have someone to blame, so you don't have to take responsibility yourself. When are we going to have someone in government doing and caring about twhat's best for the people rather than their own hides?
Sep 26, 2008 at 4:07 p.m.
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Gary has a good point. We are always giving money to outside entities to plan this and to design this (something they do, no doubt, from plans they have on hand. The managers and administrators expect that once a plan is in place, they'll get it through eventually. No talk here of whether we should be incarcerating non-violent offenders at all like those who are "driving without a license."
Sep 26, 2008 at 12:07 p.m.
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The idea seems to be that a phasing plan will allow the county to make improvements and expansion as needed. By having this plan in hand the county will be able to review jail capacity needs more specifically and make use of the already-paid-for design rather than starting anew.
Sep 26, 2008 at 9:42 a.m.
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Why are we spending money on a plan for something that we are not planning on building? I know that we will probably expand sometime in the future, but what are the chances that we will use these plans?
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