Johnson County sheriff: Start planning now for new jail

IOWA CITY — The Johnson County Jail and Sheriff’s Office is at a “critical moment,” Sheriff Brad Kunkel said Wednesday, and his office and the Board of Supervisors “have to start planning for a new building.”

Operations at the facility can continue in the near-term and aren’t deemed life- threatening, a recent structural property condition assessment conducted by Axiom Consultants found, but the complex “has a number of significant deficiencies” with some requiring immediate attention.

“The building is in need of significant structural repair soon, and overall repair soon. It's not something you want to wait around on or these problems are going to get worse and worse,” Robert Decker, owner of Axiom Consultants, said during the Wednesday work session of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors.

Axiom estimates the replacement cost for the current building is $9 to $13.5 million.

“The need for a new facility is now more than just a financial and service argument,” Kunkel told the board. “It's going to become a safety and liability issue for the staff, for the inmates and for (the county) and that operating in our current building is untenable. We have a legal and ethical duty to provide a safe and adequate facility for operations.”

County officials told The Gazette last year the facility at 511 S. Capitol St. is at the end of its useful life. The space is too crowded for inmates and staff, leaking pipes are a constant hazard and maintenance repairs are a Band-Aid. A county facility condition audit presented earlier this year rated the building in “very poor” condition.

Supervisors agree discussion needs to happen

The supervisors expressed immediacy Wednesday in continuing the discussion about the future of the Sheriff’s Office and jail. The supervisors and Kunkel spent just over an hour during the work session discussing the building’s condition and beginning to explore where to begin. There will likely be a work session scheduled at a later date solely to discuss next steps for the Sheriff’s Office and jail.

The current Johnson County Jail opened in 1981 with a 46-inmate capacity. Not long after, the county started double-bunking inmates for a capacity of 92.

The facility was built when the Sheriff’s Office had about 50 full-time employees. Now, almost 100 full-time employees work out of a space designed for half as many.

The average daily jail population for August has been 90 inmates, Kunkel said.

In 2012 and 2013, Johnson County voters rejected bond measures for a new justice center that would have addressed the county’s aging jail and courthouse. The measures got more than 50 percent support from voters, but failed to meet the 60 percent threshold for approval.

“The jail is the No. 1 issue I hear about when I'm out in the public,” Kunkel said. “It comes up everywhere.”

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The supervisors brought up the need to get local municipalities from the county involved in discussions, as well as public safety progress that has been made since the failed referendums — like opening the GuideLink Center.

One of the immediate next steps is that the Sheriff’s Office will be selecting a firm to complete a space needs study. The study should be completed by December. It will be a review and recommendation for the entire building and operations, and Kunkel will return to the board to present the findings.

Structural property condition assessment

During this year’s annual jail inspection, which was done in February by the state’s chief jail inspector, Delbert Longley, several cracks in the walls and ceiling were found, as well as additional cracks on the building’s exterior.

Longley said the observations “create a concern to the building’s structural integrity” and said the county needed to have a structural engineer review the facility. Axiom Consultants completed the structural property condition assessment earlier this year.

The roof and exterior shell of the building were two areas deemed by Axiom as needing immediate repair. The primary structural deficiency is the brick facade, and the sign of distress indicates the problem is actively worsening, Kunkel said.

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These roof and exterior projects — which were deemed needing immediate repair — are estimated to cost $2.2 to $4.36 million, with other building needs totaling about $1.3 million.

Supervisor Rod Sullivan asked Axiom’s Decker if the county has increasing liability. Sullivan referenced the apartment building that partially collapsed in downtown Davenport earlier this year, killing three people, as a comparison.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Decker said.

But with how government and public funding works, Decker said he recognizes it’s difficult to get things done immediately. “In my professional opinion, I think it needs to be a critical item that the county gets on some type of agenda to get to get taken care of very soon,” he said.

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‘We can't wait any longer to talk about this’

In addition to potential safety concerns, waiting to address the jail’s future could also be costly and complicated if the state eventually orders the county to close down the jail. The Iowa Department of Corrections ordered Warren County in 2018 to close its jail due to “years of ongoing issues with the jail facility.” The county had to rely on other counties’ jails to house inmates at a cost to taxpayers.

The county opened the Warren County Justice Center in 2022.

“Their facility was dilapidated, and they had a lot of the same problems that I've already discussed with the sheriff (and) jail administrator that I've seen here,” said Longley, who was also at Wednesday’s work session.

If the county started now, Longley said, it would be a minimum of five years before a new facility opens.

“We need to make this a priority and face it head-on together,” Kunkel said. “That's the only way this is going to happen, and I think we can do it, but we can't wait any longer to talk about this.”

Comments: (319) 339-3155; izabela.zaluska@thegazette.com