League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad Jail Study

Guilford County Jails:

Where are we today

(remember that Guilford County operates two jails, one in High Point and one in Greensboro and the prison farm.)

The county commissioners hired Moseley Architects for $2.9M to plan and design a 608 bed addition in Greensboro, either behind or next to the current jail, as well as renovate the current facility. They estimated a cost of $55.5M.

There is no money in the current budget for planning. The project was broken into five $580,000 phases. The first $580,000 was reallocated from future construction projects.

Phase 1 of the planning and design includes: collecting data, evaluating the two possible sites, and making estimates on possible costs.

Phase 2 would be completion of the construction documents with the hope of sending out bids and finding a suitable one by 5/2008.

Building the new jail would be completed by 2010 and the renovations to the old jail would be finished by 2011. In the meantime the increased number of inmates have to be housed somewhere.

The Guilford County Jail Construction Advisory Committee meets every two weeks. After several meetings the project has been revised to

possibly add 400 beds for an additional $25 to $30M. However, the current plan for 608 new beds, in addition to the current 398 beds in the Greensboro jail gives a total of 1006. (Note: significant renovation and current standards  reduce 398 to 143 beds while modest changes reduces 398 to 302 yielding either 751 total beds under new standards or 910 total beds with modest changes).*

Estimates for beds needed, according to the Kimme report are:

2010  1,244

2015  1,410

2020  1,572

2030  1,906

The Kimme report suggests planning for a 25-30 year time period.

The inmates would have to be housed elsewhere during the renovation.

How to pay for the new jail

A bond issue – would delay the start of construction one year and might be turned down

Rise in sales tax, but that needs the help of state representatives

A certificate of participation (COP) which is essentially a bank loan. The interest rate would be higher than if bonds were used.

* North Carolina has standards for jails. The Guilford jails are operating under grand-fathered standards. When significant modifications are made to an existing facility, the new standards apply. Hence the bed numbers differ depending on what is done.  Even with the grand-fathered standards the jails are overcrowded.