County keeps focus on future new jail facility

The county has formed a special committee to focus on plans for a new county jail building and programming, which met for the first time Tuesday, Feb. 23.

Sheriff Kelly Lake said there is increasing urgency in what has already been a long process.

"The state of Minnesota has given us a deadline of July 31, 2023 when we can no longer house inmates in our current facility," Lake said. "As it is now in the planning process, the goal is to have a jail facility completed by 2024 and we will need an extension for short-term use of what we have now. The state would have to give us another extension, and we are running out of time."

After a major jail study and input from several consultants, six options have been proposed. At this time, cost estimates are only approximate, and no option is set in stone.

Here is a brief description of the options discussed Tuesday. The included costs are overall estimated costs, including initial construction plus programming and operational costs over a 20-year period, and add up to anywhere from $150 million to $165 million over two decades.

1. No jail in Carlton at all would require about 24,000 square feet. Without housing those people arrested, the county still needs a processing site and a place to hold people for court appearances, etc. before they are transferred to another facility in the region for longer periods of incarceration. The costs are dependent on finding jail cells and paying other counties for that. This proposal includes 20-30 short-term holding cells for the type of offenders that come into the Carlton jail. Estimated cost of operation of this program over 20 years is $165,654,852.

2. A 72-hour holding facility with a central processing center with 40 short-term housing beds. Estimated cost over 20 years: $160,001,140.

3. A 90-day holding facility with 20-30 holding beds and, overall, 60 beds for housing. Estimated cost over 20 years: $154,888,699.

4. A full jail with central processing center plus 20-30 holding beds and a possible 80-bed capacity. Estimated cost over 20 years: $151,360,667.

5. An 80-bed jail with central processing to include 20-30 holding beds. Sixteen beds would be used for a female program. Although female offenders are on the rise in the Carlton facility, there is no existing program in the region to address programming for that population. The state of Minnesota is willing to give $2 million to develop a program at the Carlton site but no decision has been made to accept the money. Estimated cost over 20 years: $152,167,199.

6. An 80-bed jail with central processing to include 20-30 holding beds and 16 beds for female offender programming and 16 beds for male offender programming. Estimated cost over 20 years: $150,623,849.

"Hiring an architect and a construction manager are just now being considered, and so all these costs of program and construction are approximate, educated guesses," jail administrator Paul Coughlin said. "We as a group and a community have a long road to take before a workable option for Carlton County becomes a reality."

A tentative timeline shows sitework and bid packages being approved in 2022 with construction expected to finish in 2024.

Jail working committee meetings begin at 2 p.m. the third Monday of each month at the county transportation building. The meetings are open to the public. The next one is March 15.