8/14/2019 10 19 07 County Officials Unveil Plan for Justice Campus

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http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2007/10/19/news.qp-4886913.sto

County officials unveil plan for ‘justice campus’Proposal would put jail, sheriff’s office and new juvenile facility at former Thomson site

By Bethany Nolan

331-4373 | bnolan@heraldt.com

10/19/2007

Government leaders gathered in the courthouse rotunda Thursday morning to announce their vision for the future of justice and corrections in MonroeCounty. The proposal calls for construction of a new jail and juvenile facility at the former Thomson/RCA property, and renovation of the current jailinto more space for courts and other judicial necessities.

The plan could take up to five years to implement, and Thursday’s announcement didn’t include details about construction, renovation or operatingcosts.

“Our object is to push the rock off the top of the hill and see if it starts rolling,” county council member Vic Kelson said. “None of this is easy, but weneed to have a road map.”

Kelson said he and county Commissioner Pat Stoffers began speaking with other county officials about three months ago, trying to build consensus fora plan that would fill community needs and be something officials could get behind. And their plan seemed to work, with Thursday’s announcementbacked by all three county commissioners, the sheriff, five of the seven members of the county council and the county’s board of judges.

“Today is a truly historic day on behalf of the children of Monroe County,” said Monroe Circuit Judge David Welch, who handles the county’s juvenilecases. He’s lobbied hard in the past for a youth facility to be built locally.

Stoffers said his figures show that, from July 2001 to the present day, the county has spent more than $2.3 million to care for juveniles placed inout-of-county facilities. That figure doesn’t include transportation costs or other losses of productivity, he said.

“Our Monroe County jail and related facilities do not meet the needs of this community and haven’t for a long time,” he said. “Locating to the Thomson

property makes sense, in my view.”

But not all county officials favor the plan. Council member Charles Newmann said he believed a better location could be found, such as the old RogersGroup Building Supply site at Adams and Second streets. He said the county bought the Thomson/RCA property, which he called a brownfield, at abargain because nobody else wanted it.

“Here again, the local government and potentially area youth get the leftovers,” he said.

County council member Marty Hawk said she had questions as well, among them that she believed the city had specified the county would constructan internal road on the Thomson/RCA property should it ever be developed. She said she believed that process would be expensive, given thelimestone in the area. In addition, she asked how county officials planned to pay for the projects.

“I’ve got a lot of very important questions,” she said.

Neither Newmann nor Hawk said they had been aware of Thursday’s announcement, but Kelson said later they were not specifically excluded.

The plan

Here’s a look at the proposal: The county’s criminal justice continuum would be split into two “campuses.” The first, described as a justice campus,would be located at the downtown block that’s currently home to the Justice Building and the Curry and Fiscus buildings. That campus would housecourts, probation and other related activities, plus create space for future growth.

The second campus, dubbed the corrections campus, would be constructed at the former Thomson/RCA site and would house juvenile facilitiesoffering care to youthful offenders, a new jail and sheriff’s department. In 2002, the county purchased the 85-acre site, which is located west of SouthRogers Street, behind the IMI stone company and south of the old Thomson Consumer Electronics property.

A proposed timeline for the development process said it’s likely to take between two and five years and would first construct a juvenile treatment andsecure detention facility on the Thomson/RCA property, then build a new jail and sheriff’s office on that property, and finally renovate the then-vacant

 jail and sheriff’s office at the Justice Building to create more space for courts, probation and other needed functions.

Kelson said he hopes the county council will consider a resolution in favor of the conceptual proposal at its November meeting. The commissionersare expected to consider a similar resolution soon.

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