Johnson County Jail project will force relocation of inmates

IOWA CITY - A project at the Johnson County Jail slated to begin this spring will force the sheriff's office to house a majority of it's inmates out of the county for several months.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek estimates that '70 to 90 percent” of his inmates will reside in the Muscatine County Jail during the project, which will see improvements made to the jail's control center and repairs to several cell block doors. Work is scheduled to begin April 27 on the $880,000 project that is anticipated to conclude on July 20, said Eldon Slaughter, the county's facilities management.

Improvements include upgraded cameras and computers in the control room.

'That doesn't include any of the additional housing costs,” Pulkrabek said. 'That's just money on the physical building and improvements.”

With a capacity of only 92 inmates, Johnson County has long kept its overflow inmates at the Muscatine County Jail at a rate of about $45 a day. Now, most of the inmates that would be at the Johnson County Jail also will be in Muscatine County. Pulkrabek said those inmates also will be housed there for $45 a day.

Pulkrabek said the jail will have the capacity to process and hold some inmates.

'On the lower level we have the remodeled holding cells as well as a booking room on the main floor,” he said. 'Those will be heavily utilized.”

No inmates will be taken to Muscatine County until bond has been placed on them at their initial appearance, which typically happens within 24 hours of arrest.

With extra inmates housed out of county comes extra trips back and forth between the two jails and additional costs. Pulkrabek said the round trip is 43 miles.

'You have that mileage cost on top of your labor costs,” Pulkrabek said.

Part-time transport drivers make $19 an hour and deputies make almost $44 an hour. Each transport will have a two transport drivers, two deputies or a combination of the two, Pulkrabek said.

While Muscatine County is a farther drive than the Linn County Jail, Pulkrabek said Muscatine County provides his office with an 'excellent rate” for inmates and gives Johnson County the ability to house all of it's inmates in one place.

Though most inmates will be housed elsewhere, Pulkrabek said he will still keep his full jail staff on duty.

'The jail staff will still be doing a lot of the same things,” he said. 'The problem is they're going to be stationed in different ways.”

Some staff will be stationed in the main floor booking area and others will be in a room where the phone lines are to be relocated. Some jail deputies will be situated outside of the cell blocks since the cameras normally allowed to view them will be down during the project. Others will be tasked with the logistics of figuring out which inmates need to be transported to and from Muscatine County for court appearances.

While the project will provide the jail with some much needed repairs, Pulkrabek said it still doesn't address other issues at the facility that have led county officials to campaign for a bond referendum to fund a justice center.

'You're dumping good money into an old, overcrowded building,” he said.