Montgomery County commissioners have made progress on a proposed $1 billion replacement jail after selecting a site and authorizing the procurement of an engineering firm to design the project.
As part of the county’s Aug. 6 meeting proceedings, commissioners approved reimbursements associated with the project. This decision effectively greenlit the county’s efforts to buy the site for the jail and criminal justice complex while simultaneously putting its plan to build, improve and equip the project into motion.
The 543,109-square-foot replacement jail will be located on a 40-acre parcel near the current facility. The complex will include parking, medical facilities, between four and five floors of inmate housing and staff areas. In addition to having the capacity needed to handle projected population growth, the facility will be fully furnished with up-to-date utilities, technology, plumbing and other infrastructure needs.
The current jail is 40 years old and no longer holds up to the standards needed to operate as an effective, functional facility. In addition to crumbling infrastructure, the jail lacks capacity and requires hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual maintenance.
The facility currently has roughly 1,300 permanent beds and 64 temporary beds. However, as laid out in the 2019 jail master plan, the building can’t accommodate the county’s projected growth. By 2040, the jail will need 2,350 beds.
Commissioners still need to hammer out additional details regarding the project’s scope, cost and funding sources. These finalized details require approval by Aug. 17 if the county wants to include the jail in the upcoming November bond election.
Photo by RDNE Stock Project from Pexels
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