Studer Community Institute

Finding a new home for the jail

November 18, 2014
/ Shannon Nickinson
/ government

The new Escambia County Jail needs a home, and the list of potential sites now stands at 10. Most have relatively easy access to U.S. 29, a designated hurricane evacuation route. One is near the Perdido Landfill area. Another is the old soccer complex property at U.S. 29 and W Street. And the current location is on the list. County Administrator Jack Brown hopes to bring the list to commissioners for discussion and direction in December. The county put out two solicitations for property that may be suitable to build a replacement for the jail and Central Booking and Detention, which was irreparably damaged by a natural gas explosion on April 30. Brown says he and the staff are using site selection criteria from The National Institute of Corrections as a guide. Those criteria include considering a site’s access to power, flood zone considerations, traffic impacts, environmental impacts and others. The flood-zone considerations are particularly important given that the current location for the jail and Central Booking routinely floods. Brown has had staff also look at the zoning criteria, proximity to schools, churches, parks and other public places. “We’ve gone through the 10 sites we’ll take to the board,” Brown says. “It’s important that we know the shape of the property when we select a site moving forward. That will help us know if we are going to build a campus type design, a multistory, or a wheel-and-spoke design.” The current jail location is on that list of 10, but Brown says, its flooding issues are well-documented. “If you put any more impervious surface there, it will only exacerbate the issue,” he says. Also on the list is a blast from Escambia County’s past — the former soccer complex property now owned by Gulf Power. “It’s a piece of property they want to move,” Brown says. “We have not had direct conversations with them at all” about the possibility of purchasing it. The 10 sites Here is an interactive map of the 10 site snow being vetted by county staff as possible locations for a new jail. Click on the pin for details about each location. Map by Ron Stallcup. [flexiblemap src="http://mapsengine.google.com/map/kml?mid=zcHmrILnK37g.kOAcLqmCeVhc&lid=zcHmrILnK37g.k25xT-3Ndfv8" width="100%" height="500"] Click each link for more detail about each possible site: — Central Commerce Park Phase II. — U.S. 29 and County Road 196. — Site 3 is near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Beck’s Lake Road. — Perdido Landfill area. — Old soccer complex site at U.S. 29 and W Street. — Parcel at Old Palafox and Airport Boulevard. — Old jail site at 1200 W. Leonard St. — McDonald’s Shopping Center site on West Fairfield Drive. — Superfund site on Palafox. — Some 68 acres north of the Superfund site. Grand jury investigation looms Some aspects of the discussion about rebuilding the jail have been on hold pending the outcome of a grand jury investigation into the explosion. The explosion at Central Booking came on the heels of an historic rainfall that flooded the basement. Central Booking housed some 607 people at the time. The explosion killed two inmates, paralyzed a corrections officer and injured 184 people. The State Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are investigating the cause of the explosion. Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille says he anticipates the grand jury looking into the matter will be complete in the next few weeks. Attorney Ed Fleming has presented a report to County Commissioners about the explosion. Fleming was tasked with investigating the explosion in terms of potential civil liability, including federal civil rights violations. He wrote that he found no evidence that jail staff ignored reports of the smell of gas ahead of the explosion. “We focused on whether county officials in charge of the jail ignored reports of a gas leak during the hours preceding the blast as reported by various media,” Fleming wrote. “We found no such evidence” based on interviews with staff on duty at the time of the blast, maintenance records and nursing staff notes. The insured value of the Central Booking building was up to $45 million for the physical structure and up to $25 million in flood insurance coverage, county officials have reported. Estimates to replace Central Booking and the current jail with a facility that would hold some 1,476 beds are at $161 million, not including site acquisition or out-of-county inmate housing. The timeline for completing such a project is three years, three months.

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Finding a new home for the jail

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