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Johnson County will not increase juvenile detention center beds contract with Linn County
The Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 against a budget amendment

Jul. 5, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Jul. 7, 2025 8:33 am
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IOWA CITY — The Johnson County Board of Supervisors earlier this week voted down a proposed budget amendment that would have increased the number of beds guaranteed to the county at the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center.
The county currently contracts with the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center for three guaranteed beds, which costs around $320,000 annually. If Johnson County needs more beds and there aren't any available in Linn County, youth in custody must be transported to other facilities across the state. Johnson County does not have its own juvenile detention center.
The proposed contract amendment lost on a vote of 2-3 with Supervisors Jon Green, Mandi Remington and V Fixmer-Oraiz voting no. The amendment would have increased the number of guaranteed beds to four, increasing the county’s annual costs to around $444,000.
In voting against the amendment, Green, Remington and Fixmer-Oraiz said they are opposed to any investment in juvenile detention that is not a long term effective solution.
Supervisors Rod Sullivan and Lisa Green-Douglass voted in favor of the amendment, expressing concerns about youth having to be transported hours away. The amendment’s passage was recommended by county staff and Sheriff Brad Kunkel.
Juveniles moved to facilities across Iowa
Last year, the county needed a total of 106 units, or days juveniles spent incarcerated outside of the Linn County facility, but through April the county has already used 400 units. Last fiscal year, Kunkel said the county booked 29 juvenile inmates.
Kunkel said juveniles have been placed at facilities in Eldora, Cherokee, Woodbury County, Scott County and Lee County. He said the sheriff’s office doesn’t prefer to transport juvenile or adult inmates due to security risks for both the officer and inmate, as well as the burden on staff time.
“… This is a strange debate to me. It really is, because we are just saying we need one more for next year based on what we're seeing,” Kunkel told the supervisors at a recent work session. “There's not a magic algorithm that's going to say here's what you will need and lead you in that direction. You have to look at the numbers, and you have your experience, and we're making a hypothesis.”
Representatives from the Johnson County Attorney’s Office, Social Services Department and the Linn County advocate also were in favor of adding a fourth bed to the contract.
“By having this additional bed at Linn County, it helps guarantee that we can keep kids closer to home … I don't receive a bill for the transport costs to do the 10-hour round trip to Cherokee for a placement just to drop a kid off, and then to do that trip again, to pick them up. We're not getting those bills, not to mention looking at the well-being on the youth to have to make that difficult trip,” said Lynette Jacoby, Johnson County social services director.
Supervisors vote against adding additional bed
Fixmer-Oraiz and Remington opposed adding the fourth bed to the contract, saying the county should look into other alternatives rather than incarceration. Fixmer-Oraiz also voiced concerns that there wasn’t enough data to justify adding another bed.
“It's not within the current system that we have, which is why I think Mandi and I are talking about not continuing to invest in the current system that we have … we have to look at the bigger picture. We have to look at other alternatives,” Fixmer-Oraiz said at a county work session.
Sullivan noted that the county is liable for the financial costs of any juvenile that is incarcerated, regardless of where they are housed in the state, but the contract increases the likelihood a juvenile will be closer to home.
“I think that we can send a message, and so it's my preference that we remain in three beds,” Green said at a county work session.
Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com
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