A county commission tasked with coming up with a jail replacement has arrived on the number of beds a new facility would need by 2050, though the group’s recommendation won’t be the last step needed before a plan is presented to the Clark County Council.
The Correction Facility Advisory Commission (CFAC) decided at its April 23 meeting to move forward with a projection that the facility will need 850 to 880 beds by 2050, a county release announced the following day. The release also noted that possible locations of a new facility would be at the main jail location on 13th Street and at the current Jail Work Center location on Lower River Road, with four combinations of services currently being looked at.
A final recommendation of what a new jail would look like is expected in June or July, the release stated. That decision would be the culmination of work by the 24-member CFAC, which began meeting in April 2018 to look at replacing the aging facility.
Once that recommendation is ready county staff will be tasked with specifics on a project before it’s presented to the council.
In a discussion prior to the April 23 meeting, Clark County Manager Shawn Henessee explained that although the number of beds, as well as location, were chief factors when he analyzes what the jail will look like, there are other county needs he will take into account as well.
Following CFAC’s recommendation, Henessee said he would have to look at all county facilities and how they would fit into a capital project, mentioning specifically the family law annex and children’s justice center.
“The prosecutor’s (office) is in a building that they were supposed to only be there for a year, and they’ve been there 15-plus years,” he said, adding that he didn’t want to lose sight of those other concerns in the process of looking at the jail.
Outside of construction costs, Henessee is also concerned with ongoing expenses for a new facility such as staffing. Paying for the construction and ongoing upkeep could mean the county taking out a bond to pay for the project — during the discussion, Henessee referenced a decision that would be “presented to the voters” as one of the likely scenarios.
“There’s absolutely no way that we can build a jail with our current budget,” he said.
