New jail efforts come to fruition

Carlton County will break ground on the new justice center/jail this summer, a massive undertaking.

"This is the largest project Carlton County has ever undertaken since the courthouse was built," said jail administrator Paul Coughlin. "We are putting all of our efforts towards making sure that it will be the best."

The new jail/justice center will be located next to the Carlton County Transportation Building on Highway 61 west of the city of Carlton, which annexed the property from Twin Lakes Township.

Sheriff Kelly Lake said that she has been working toward a new jail since she took office 16 years ago. Now that the actual project is close to becoming reality, she is gratified.

"It is exciting," she said. "We've been working on this for such a long time. Paul Coughlin is the project manager and has been doing a great job."

Coughlin said he is also excited but there is still a long way to go.

The new two-story, 110,000-square-foot building will be built north of the transportation building on a 28-acre green site, which means that there has been no previous use of that property. The property is forested and most of the trees will be removed, leaving a buffer of trees between it and the transportation building, the Olsonville neighborhood and Highway 61. Parking lot space is also included in the plans.

The new justice center will house the courts system, including three courtrooms and space for the magistrate, family court and civil trials and family matters.

"There are two seated judges in Carlton County," Coughlin said. "The magistrate and referee work in family court."

The justice center also will house offices for the county attorney, probation, guardian ad litem, public defenders, sheriff's office, sheriff's office equipment and a garage.

"We are working with all of the clients that will be in the building to make sure that the space is the most efficient and economical," Coughlin said.

So far they have looked at sample jail cells from two companies, and will likely go to Georgia to check out a third type of prefabricated cell.

The jail portion of the building will house 80 offenders, Lake said, versus 48 in the current jail, which was built in 1979, with an addition in 1981. The new jail will have greater flexibility in terms of housing men and women: the current jail has long been inadequate for the rising number of female offenders.

A regional women's program will be included in the jail. There will be an additional 16 spaces for those women, who will be housed in "more therapeutic" cells versus the "hard cells" that will house county offenders, Coughlin said. The program will be a first for the region and for the state of Minnesota.

"There has never been a program for women in a jail setting," said Coughlin. "It will be a program that will be started from scratch."

Programs are important for educating offenders and working with their families.

"What we've learned throughout the process is to make sure to help stabilize the offenders to lower recidivism [when people reoffend and return to jail]," Coughlin said.

The proposed new center and jail has a high price tag. Coughlin said the estimated cost for the project is $55-58 million, up to $66-70 million including contingency costs.

Klein McCarthy is the architect; Adolphson and Peterson Construction is the construction manager.

"We are still in the planning process for the bids," Coughlin said. "Bids will be called for in the spring. Actual construction probably won't begin until mid-summer. There are long lead times; we might have to bid at different times for different parts of the project. We are relying on the construction manager's expertise for those decisions."

There are several potential funding sources for the project.

"We will go to the Legislature to ask for part of the funding," said Coughlin. "Another portion of the funding will come from a half-percent sales tax if it's approved by the voters at the General Election in November 2022. If that doesn't pass, the burden will be put on the taxpayers [through property taxes] in the county."

Coughlin said a new jail was first discussed in 2007, after the county completed the needs assessment that led, in part, to the new Health and Human Services building in downtown Cloquet. He and other officials started exploring the idea more intently in 2015, when he and Lake went to the National Institute of Corrections in Colorado.

A letter from the Minnesota Department of Corrections in early 2020 added fuel to the fire. The letter stated that the current jail does not meet building standards, nor does it provide the required programming standards, and suggested that the jail would be forced to close operation on July 31, 2023. If building is underway, the DOC would probably give an extension until the combined jail and justice center construction is completed.

Chief Sixth Judicial District judge Mike Cuzzo addressed the county officials earlier this year regarding judicial needs in Carlton County.

"The court system now implemented has needs and services that were not of a concern in 1922 when the Carlton County courthouse was built," Cuzzo said. "We have 2.5 full- or part-time judges working out of three courtroom areas. The building is minimally secure for such activities and requires hallways and stairwells for attorneys to work with their clients and family that come there for support. Safety is a big issue and the chance of an incident is there. Other offices are in the present courthouse and court activities and public use of these offices are hard to control," he said.

Coughlin is excited to see the project progress.

"I'm starting to see some blueprints," he said. "It's becoming real."

This project is something that Coughlin will see through to the end and then leave to others when he retires.

"I will be retiring in about five years," he said. "I won't get much of a chance to work in the new jail. Someone else will be taking over that job."