Jacksonville set for next step in building $1 billion jail at site to be determined

Movement on building a new $1 billion jail is heating up as the city seeks to bring on board a firm that will design and construct it in a public-private partnership that will answer the hot-button question of what part of Jacksonville will be the site of the corrections complex.

City leaders say the campus-style jail complex will be built somewhere outside of downtown and will need enough acreage for multiple buildings and land for future expansion. But they have not decided what the best place would be for it.

Mayor Donna Deegan, who supports building it, said this week if the city doesn't receive an unsolicited proposal from any firms in the coming weeks for a public-private partnership, the next step will be to draw up a formal request for such proposals.

Deegan said her preference would be an arrangement where a firm builds the jail and then leases it back to the city.

"Having said that, I'm not married to that until I see proposals," she said. "We have to do whatever ends up being the most fiscally responsible thing and will actually get our jail built because we need that jail."

City Council members and Sheriff T.K. Waters also back using a public-private partnership for building a new jail. Waters supports inviting firms to submit proposals and "would prefer sooner rather than later on the process in general," according to the Sheriff's Office.

If the city ends up hiring a private firm, the work on planning and design of a new jail campus will include determining where to build it. That decision will likely spur some "not in my backyard" opposition. For instance, when the state and local leaders considered the Westside for a state prison in the 1990s, vocal opposition by residents killed the idea.

The city's capital improvements program has for years identified Lannie Road on the Northside as the site for a new county jail. The city already operates the Montgomery Correctional Center off Lannie Road so that area has had a corrections facility for decades.

"I think that's one alternative because we own the property, but I think there are other alternatives people are looking at," City Council member Ron Salem said.

Protesters fear jail decision will be a 'backroom deal'

The prospect of paying $1 billion for a new jail has already brought protesters to City Hall. At a rally organized by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee outside City Hall, opponents chanted "Money for jobs and education, not for mass incarceration" while holding signs that said "Invest in community" and "Stop the backroom deals."

Protestors said the process could repeat what happened when the city decided to build a new medical examiner's office in the Brentwood neighborhood and residents didn't learn about it until the city was clearing land at the construction site.

Rally speaker Wells Todd said the city wants to move the current jail out of downtown because it's on "prime riverfront property" for development.

"They won't tell us where they're going to move it, but you know about the morgue," Todd said.

He and other speakers said Jacksonville has historically put facilities such as the Medical Examiner's Office in predominantly Black areas of the city.

Lydia Bell, president of the Metro Gardens Neighborhoods Association that has fought the Medical Examiner's Office, said residents must demand the city provide information to the public "from the beginning to the end" on the jail.

"Stop this morgue and stop this prison," she said during the rally that brought repeated shouts of "shame" from a few dozen people.

They said before committing money to a new jail, the city should ask voters in a referendum if they support it.

UNF poll in 2023 showed support for building new jail

A University of North Florida poll in September 2023 found 52% of respondents supported building a new jail somewhere outside downtown, 40% were opposed and the remaining 8% did not have a position or did not answer.

At that time of the UNF poll, the estimated cost of building a new jail and police administration building was around $380 million. The higher $1 billion figure came up in 2024 as a "back of the envelope" calculation during a seven-month study by a special City Council committee meeting about the future of the Police Memorial Building and next-door jail known as the John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Center.

A report done by the special City Council committee said the seven-floor jail off Bay Street is outdated, overcapacity, inefficient to operate and compromises the "well-being of inmates and JSO staff."

The report didn't identify a site for a new jail but it did recommend moving employees from the Police Memorial Building, which is the name for the police administration building, to leased office space in the Florida Blue building on Riverside Avenue in downtown's Brooklyn neighborhood.

City Council voted Feb. 25 on a lease agreement for the Sheriff's Office to make that move. The Sheriff's Office expects it will take 16 to 18 months for improvements in the Florida Blue building to be complete.

Salem, who formed the special committee on the Sheriff's Office facilities when he was council president, said the relocation to the Florida Blue building puts the city "well into the process of a jail move."

"This is the first big step — getting the Police Memorial Building taken care of — and I think we will see some activity on the jail in the not too distant future," he said during a council Finance Committee meeting.

New jail would add more pressure to city's budget

Hiring a firm to design and build a new jail would pin down the cost. That expense would come on top of the $775 million the city agreed to pay for the $1.4 billion renovation of the city-owned football stadium to keep the Jaguars in Jacksonville for another 30 years. Jaguars owner Shad Khan will pay the rest of the stadium tab.

The city also hears from residents who want more done in their neighborhoods for streets, drainage and sidewalks along with all the other everyday services the city provides at parks and libraries.

"The truth is, you know, we have two things that can be true," Deegan said. "We have a tight budget and also have a need for a new jail complex. We're working with the sheriff. We're making sure that we are very intentional in the process."

The report by the City Council special committee recommended the city establish a "blue-ribbon" committee comprised of representatives of the mayor's office, City Council, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the Fourth Judicial Circuit to create a request for proposals by using the committee's findings as a guide.

"It's a hard conversation to have because you've got to get all stakeholder at the table to agree on something and that's going to take some time to do," said City Council member Michael Boylan, who was chairman of the special committee.

The city has not created a blue-ribbon committee, but Boylan said the process going forward should recognize that what's needed in Jacksonville will be "similar but not the same" as jail facilities built elsewhere.

"I'm really hopeful they use the platform we created with the study as a foundation," he said.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville seeks public-private partnership for building new jail