The city’s hunt for a future jail site will give the public an initial list of potential sites in about six months and the choice of a top-ranked site could happen a year from now.
The city has hired CGL as the firm helping with the site selection that will start with a blank slate for where to build a new justice complex on several hundred acres.
“There’s no area suggested nor taken off,” City Chief Administrative Officer Mike Weinstein said. “It is free to look at the whole 840 square miles.”
Here are the phases of the one-year study that will likely create the most intense reaction and questions from parts of the city in the vicinity of whatever options emerge during the study.
Initial phase: Inmate projections and real estate examination
The opening months of the study will focus on formulating 30-year projections for inmate populations in order to guide how much land is needed for a campus-style facility where buildings are no more than two stories tall.
The study will determine how many beds are needed, the square footage of the buildings and a “very rough cost estimate,” Sheriff’s Office Director of Corrections Kevin Goff said in an update to City Council on March 10.
In addition to a new main jail, the site would be large enough to have the juvenile detention facility and city-run prison onto the same site. The Jacksonville Justice Center also would need land for providing medical care and mental health treatment for inmates.
Public involvement: Town halls to get feedback
CGL will be scouting the real estate market for tracts of land that are large enough to accommodate the facilities with room to grow. Weinstein said while no parts of the city are off-limits to being considered, the need for large parcels of land will effectively rule out some areas that don’t have several hundred acres of open land.
After coming up with potential sites, which might be a half dozen or more options, the city and CGL will have town hall meetings. Those meetings will likely takes place five to seven months after the study starts, Weinstein said.
“Each of the sites will have its own challenges but the public is going to have more than adequate time to voice their interests and concerns,” Weinstein said.
GCL also will give updates to City Council throughout the site search.
Further study will zero in on three potential sites
Within one year of starting the study, GCL will have three locations for consideration by Mayor Donna Deegan and Sheriff T.K. Waters.
Weinstein said those sites might already be owned by the city or in private hands.
Waters and Deegan will decide which of the three sites is the best location and then City Council will get the final say.
After the site search wraps up, the city will move next to designing the facility, financing it and building it. Weinstein said it would probably be four to five years from now before the new jail is ready to house inmates.
The city would separately decide what to do with downtown site where the police administration building and current jail would be vacant.
This article was originally published by the Florida Times-Union.