Panel studying options for joint law enforcement facility between Johnson County and Iowa City

IOWA CITY — The Johnson County Board of Supervisors and the Iowa City Council are working to study the feasibility of constructing a joint law enforcement facility that would house a new county jail, the sheriff’s office and the city’s police department — all facing aging and cramped spaces.

Neither entity has committed to work beyond the initial study, costing over $60,000 between the two entities.

The Johnson County Jail is over capacity, posing safety concerns for both inmates and staff, and requiring that some inmates be housed at facilities outside the county. Between 2021 and 2023, the county paid an average of $387,000 per year to house inmates out of county, according to county data.

  Buy Photo

The Iowa City Police Department is in a similar situation. Officials have said the department’s space, housed within City Hall, isn’t fit for long-term use due to its age and its crowding.

Both Johnson County and Iowa City completed space needs assessments of their facilities in the past two years. The two architectural firms that completed the studies — OPN Architects and Shive-Hattery — are working together on the joint feasibility study.

The Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, which includes the Board of Supervisors, is proposing to put a bond issue before Johnson County voters in November 2026 that would fund the project — and be backed with property taxes — if approved.

The committee is hoping to have a final design for a facility by the end of this year. A cost estimate is not yet available. As a part of the design process, the committee visited law enforcement facilities in Iowa’s Dallas and Woodbury counties.

Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chair Jon Green sat down with The Gazette to talk about the joint law enforcement facility and the work of the committee. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

  Buy Photo

Q: Can you give an explanation on what a Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee is and how it relates to the proposed joint law enforcement facility?

A: The CJCC was reconstituted by the board late last calendar year, it had been stood up years ago for previous attempts at winning voter support to build a new jail and sheriff's office. It's an opportunity to ensure that supervisors have all of the relevant people in the room as we're going through these discussions to best inform us how to proceed.

Q: How was the field trip to the Dallas and Woodbury County facilities? Are there any takeaways or things that stood out about each of them?

A: Both of the facilities are newer facilities, these are just buildings we're talking about, seeing what a modern facility looks like, how it operates, learning what sort of difficulties both Dallas and Woodbury counties faced as they were preparing their facilities. Woodbury County also formed a law enforcement authority, which is the entity that was responsible for the construction of the facility and facility oversight. I think for me, personally, hearing what some of their difficulties were, some of their lessons learned, I think that was the most profitable portion of the trip for me. I appreciate both the Woodbury County sheriff and Supervisor Nelson of Woodbury County was also on hand, and they were both refreshingly frank about their lessons learned and things that they'd do differently if they had a mulligan at it. And so hopefully, if that is how we proceed here, we can avoid some of their mistakes. I do also want to express Johnson County's appreciation to both Dallas and Woodbury counties for hosting us. You know it was a valuable trip.

  Buy Photo

Q: With a joint law enforcement facility, is there an idea yet of what spaces will be shared and what will be separate?

A: There is not. Both Iowa City and the county have space needs analysis in our hands. I think going back to some of the lessons learned from Woodbury County, I think that probably what's going to be most appropriate and the best from a good governance standpoint is going to be that if we do a shared facility, it's the building footprint that is shared, not necessarily an intermingling of offices. There's going to need to be a real clear delineation, this is Iowa City side and this is the county side.

Q: What comes next in this process?

A: We have contracted with the Center for Social Science Innovation at the University of Iowa to help us do a community survey and some focus groups. Shive Hattery and OPN Architects are working together, so they are going to continue developing an idea of basically what the gross square footage needs to be. And then hopefully by sometime midsummer, we have a pretty solid idea of how to proceed, because we're going to need to work with the community to ensure that there's support to move forward on this.

I have to acknowledge the macro economic and world political upheaval we find ourselves in. With tariffs kicking in, I'm afraid that the world has pretty much changed overnight, and we're going to have to see how that interfaces with things. But we have a responsibility to our employees and the people whom we incarcerate to deliver a facility that is safe and humane, and so I'm committed to doing that. I just hope to hell that the Trump administration isn't going to set this whole thing back, because it's impossible to put a dollar amount on but we've already invested. It isn't just the dollars and the contracts. It's every time CJCC meets. There’s a lot of people in that room that are either on county payroll, a couple of them are on Iowa City payroll, and a lot of people who are just volunteering their time. And I'm immensely grateful for all of that. I don't want to see any of that go to waste. I want us to get to a point where in a couple years, we're breaking ground on a new facility that we can all be proud of.

Q: Is there anything we haven’t talked about that you want to make sure is clear to Gazette readers?

A: Right now we are on one track, which is the county and city working together to develop a plan, and that track is going to continue through until at least the opening of the facility, but there's going to be a second separate track, and just as important. Which at some point, we're going to have to stand up a public campaign similar to what you saw with the conservation bond last year in order to inform the public and hopefully build support for it. It's something that we all have to keep in mind, is that portion is going to have to be firewalled off from the work that we're doing as official county employees. But that piece is probably going to need to start to come together, also mid summer. That's going to be a parallel track that we're going to have to get underway here pretty quick.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

Get a weekly roundup of Johnson County news by signing up for my Johnson County Update newsletter.