January 2023 District 17 Digest
Here's the January 2023 District 17 Digest! Cross-posted to board.countyofdane.com/supervisors/detail/17, where you can sign up to have the monthly digest delivered directly to your inbox.
Last month, I promised an upcoming "deeper dive" update on the Jail Consolidation Project, and since it's been in the news, this edition of the District 17 Digest seems like a good place to provide that.
Current state and next steps
If your main interest here is to find out where we are right now and what comes next, here's what you're looking for:
2022-January 2023: Detailed design work on the new facility commenced in 2022. Based on timelines the Board has been provided, this will be done any day now. Note, the design work has been ongoing in parallel to the Board's deliberations on the project, and the recent votes taken by the Board have not impacted it. More on that in the below sections.
March 2023: Once done, the design is audited and costed. We're told this process will be concluded in March.
Only then will we know how much the new project will cost. This is an important point because, up until now, we've been working with only very rough estimates. Once we have that cost figure, I anticipate that there will be funding vote based on it.
I will continue to provide updates as this process goes on.
Historical background
The Jail Consolidation Project has been a challenging, high-profile part of the Board’s work for some time now—well longer than my Board service, which started in April 2022.
The most urgent reason to complete the Jail Consolidation Project is the inhumane state of our current jail facilities. Put simply, Dane County needs to do better by the human beings we incarcerate. There isn't much, if any, disagreement on the Board on this point: Our present facility is unacceptable and something must be done about it.
When I joined the Board, the previous Board had just formulated a plan on how to move the project forward. This plan is known as “Res 320” (the full name of the resolution is 2021 RES-320). Specifically, Res 320 calls for a new 6-story jail tower that would comprise 825 beds as well as an in-house acute care medical unit. Among other things, this plan's intention is to allow us to decommission the inhumane facilities we use today. (Added note, you may see various media refer to said facilities as "the CCB" or "CCB 5th and 6th floors" or language similar to that.)
Through prior monetary allocations to the project—as well as allocations made in Res 320 itself—a total budget of $166 million was established for this project.
2022 in a nutshell (on this project)
After I joined the Board, we were informed by Mead and Hunt—the architecture firm contracted by the County to guide completion of the project—that the items set forth in Res 320 would require an allocation of additional funds. This shortfall has been quoted variously as anywhere from $9.8 million to $13.5 million.
As with any construction project, there are two ways to close a budgetary shortfall--change the project scope, or allocate the additional funds.
Here, it's important to note that design work for the project called for in Res 320 began last year and has continued through our budgetary deliberations and into January. I call that out because the budgetary deliberations and other related items taken up since then have not changed the timeline of completing that design. Those processes are happening in parallel.
With that said, here's a quick analysis of how we've treated both of those options:
Option: Funding allocation
There have been a few funding allocation votes, most recently one to take the question of whether to add $13.5 million to the project to a binding referendum with the April elections.
I opposed this, and it didn't pass. I opposed this because, as noted above, $13.5 million is a rough estimate--and asking you for that funding only to find out we need even more is a nightmare scenario. I also felt that the question itself--which the Board did not write and could not change--was worded in a misleading way.
As noted above, I anticipate a follow-up vote on funding once we have a more solid cost figure on the actual construction.
Option: Change of scope
When I joined the Board, I knew that this project was in a crisis state, so I dove in. There have been two iterations of scope changes proposed:
2022 RES-136: Scaled the plan to five stories to reduce cost (of both construction and operation). Data from multiple studies (here's a recent one) indicated that this size would meet current and future needs. I co-authored and sponsored this plan, with the Dane County Black Caucus in the lead. It did not pass.
Budget amendment: Compromise plan that was a bit larger than 2022 RES-136. I co-authored and sponsored this plan. It passed and then was vetoed by the County Executive.
I'd supported these scope changes because they're data-driven, and they occur alongside reforms that reduce racial disparity in our incarceration practices. We lead the nation in these disparities--which is itself a crisis--and the impact is that on a typical day there are 200 more Black people in Dane County's jail than there would be if we held to national averages. (see Figure 2 in this presentation).
But as of now--though work on reforms is ongoing--scope changes to the construction project are not on the table.
What’s next
As noted above, we're told we will have solid cost figures to act upon in March. This is thanks to tireless work on the part of County staff to maintain progress on the project despite the funding shortfall. I'll keep the updates coming as this process continues.