Supervisors and committee members used Thursday's Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee meeting to debate how many beds a new facility should provide, whether the new building should be sized for peak days and how investments in housing and diversion interact with capacity choices.

"There is 4,600 total bookings in 2024 for the daily population that's around 86.4 average," Supervisor Zach said while urging focus on programs that reduce recidivism and return to the community. Committee members noted that daily averages (ADP) have been in the mid-80s (2023 ADP about 83; 2024 ADP about 86.4), with peak days reaching 116.

Officials described the current facility's technical capacity as 92 beds and noted older design assumptions dating to an original build for roughly 46 single-occupancy cells. The consultants' earlier proposals and subsequent designs under discussion included figures described in the meeting as 140 beds (in some references 148), and staff flagged that the physical design could leave adjacent land for later expansion but that any expansion would require additional capital and approvals.

Supervisors discussed trade-offs: one supervisor suggested building the facility with unused footprint (shell space) for future expansion while avoiding fully outfitting additional cells; others warned that if the county limits capacity now, out-of-county housing and transport costs could recur at peak times. The sheriff's office and staff noted that building a larger new facility likely increases staff needs and operating costs; one county official estimated additional full-time equivalent positions might rise by about 10% to 12% in a larger facility.

The committee did not set a final bed count. Chairperson Green proposed a schedule for further analysis: supervisors will use a board work session on Sept. 17 to review questions and consultant responses and hold a formal board vote to set a bed target at the regular board meeting on Sept. 25. The chair asked committee members and the public to submit specific questions to staff by the end of the next day to give the consultant time to respond.

Why it matters: Bed count determines initial construction costs, long-term staffing and operating budgets, whether the county must continue to transport or house inmates out of county at peak times, and how the county balances capital spending for a facility against investments in housing, mental health and diversion programs.

Next steps from the meeting: supervisors asked Shive Hattery (the design consultant) for a square-footage analysis showing legal capacity limits and the cost trade-offs of various bed-count options; questions were due to staff by the end of the next day and the board scheduled a work session on Sept. 17 and a formal vote on Sept. 25.