Board discusses jail and community corrections capacity study, project governance and next steps

Washington County officials reviewed a final jail and community corrections center capacity study and discussed project governance, scheduling and next steps during the board’s work session.

Erin Calvert, assistant county administrator, said Matrix Consulting completed the county’s jail capacity study and moved the draft to a final report included in the meeting packet. The packet also included proposed governance documents. Calvert said the study "did confirm that by the year 02/1955, Washington County will need additional jail bed and community correction center bed space," and noted the study’s findings are based on utilization, population and other factors included in the Matrix report. Calvert also said the study was completed under budget: $200,000 was set aside for the study, and invoices to date total just under $85,500. The board has appropriated $6,000,000 in the county’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) in the current fiscal year.

Calvert described a proposed project governance structure consisting of an Executive Steering Committee (policy direction and recommendations to the board), a Leadership Team (data and subject-matter review), a proposed finance task force, and a project management team to execute day-to-day planning and construction tasks. Chair Katherine Harrington is the current board representative on the Executive Steering Committee.

Facilities, fleets and parks director Laurel Brown and Sheriff Caprice Massey outlined next steps. Brown clarified the meaning of "programming": facilities staff use the term to mean a systematic process to define design requirements, while the Sheriff's Office uses "programming" to refer to enrichment and education activities provided to adults in custody. Sheriff Massey said the project should prioritize trauma-informed spaces, services for behavioral health and substance use disorder, and staff resiliency. The sheriff also said she believes bed-space needs could be higher than some model estimates: while Matrix provided numbers in the high 800s, she said her office anticipates needs around 1,000 "through 02/1955."

Commissioners focused questions on funding, timing and scope. Several commissioners said financing is a critical next step and asked staff to provide cost estimates and a finance strategy before advancing design work. Commissioner Jerry Willie asked whether the project would pause after a 30% design phase for an affordability check; staff said early design phases would likely use the $6 million appropriated in the CIP and that a finance task force is being proposed to coordinate a longer-term funding strategy. Commissioners also requested short, plain-language materials for public outreach (two- to four-page summaries for both the jail and community corrections center), a clear needs statement that the board could memorialize, and milestones that show touch points between project teams and the board.

Staff proposed a sample timeline that puts conceptual design and consultant selection in the near term, with construction not expected to begin earlier than 2028. Commissioners asked staff to return with additional funding context and requested that the board take action on key project decisions "no later than early January." Calvert said staff will work with the board to set that follow-up, and that procurement work such as drafting an RFP for design services could proceed in parallel with refined funding analysis and stakeholder materials.

The board did not take formal policy votes on project direction in the work session; Commissioners expressed general support for the pacing while asking staff to provide the additional finance analysis, needs statements and public-facing summaries requested during the discussion.

Several commissioners and staff noted ancillary items that will affect the project, including site constraints on the existing public-safety complex ("superblock") and the timing of potential public-safety levies referenced in the proposed timeline. Staff emphasized that funding and operational costs will need separate consideration alongside capital costs as the project proceeds.