CRESTVIEW — Okaloosa County’s next big infrastructure project, possibly following soon after the new courthouse, also will be built in the Crestview area.
“The big capital need I see going forward is the county jail,” county administrator John Hofstad said. The cost to expand the jail’s capacity could top $20 million, he said.
“They’re going to have to do something about it,” senior officer Capt. Patrick Hanratty said. “We’ve always been overcrowded.”
Hanratty said the jail has been routinely exceeding its capacity by more than 100 prisoners. Thursday, the 594-bed facility held 702 inmates.
“Either we’re going to be proactive and do something about it or the state's going to force us to do something,” Hofstad said.
It wouldn’t be the first time the government stepped in to address the Okaloosa County jail’s conditions. In 1981, the county lost a federal lawsuit brought by prisoners to encourage reforms. A year later, a new section added 82 beds to the jail.
Hofstad said in a phone interview that expanding the U.S. Highway 90 East facility is challenging.
“We have a condensed site over there on 90,” he said. “We’re looking at some additional properties that abut that site.”
OPTIONS
Chief Stefan Vaughn, county Department of Corrections director, said he believes expansion can fit in the jail’s current, almost 20-acre site. In fact, in 2007 another wing was planned to be built behind the jail.
Friday, corrections and county officials received solicitations from firms bidding to update the 2006 master plan. The revised plan will form a guide for expansion, Vaughn said.
While the county’s preference is expanding the current facility, Hofstad said county officials might also eye alternative sites with room for expansion, including property near the Okaloosa Correctional Institution off State Road 85 south of the Shoal River.
The original jail — opened in 1963 and designed to hold 124 inmates — is at the core of today’s jail. “We just kind of wrapped around it,” Hanratty said.
Over the years, it has been expanded four times, most recently in 2003. A planned 2007 expansion was put on hold as the economy and the inmate population decreased. But once again the jail is bursting at the seams.
“We need to address that lingering, pressing need,” Hofstad said.
PORTABLE BUNKS
Thursday, while a CNB reporter visited the jail, two officers in C Pod’s central tower observed 128 inmates distributed in six sections.
In one section alone, 39 inmates were housed in facilities designed for 26 prisoners.
“We use plastic portable cots for the overflow,” Officer T. Santaro said.
Equally overcrowded is the jail’s medical unit, where nine inmates are housed in seven cells, five of which are reserved for mental health patients.
“I’ve had 15 in here before,” Officer Craig Wagner said. “The numbers change constantly.”
“We need a unit twice this size to accommodate our needs,” Hanratty said.
“Having only two exam rooms, it gets absolutely insane in here. Sometimes we have people waiting in the hallway,” Robynn Johnson, one of the unit’s full-time nurses, said. “It gets crowded and a little dangerous at times.”
PAYING FOR IT
While the county considers where and how to grow the jail, it is also weighing options to fund the expected $20 million or more cost.
The 2003 expansion was funded through a local option sales tax, which had a five-year sunset, Hofstad said. Other options include an additional property tax, but county officials aren’t keen on that possibility.
Visitors and people passing through the area pay about 40 percent of the sales tax, Hofstad said. “That’s that much less of a burden on our property owners,” Hofstad said. “We’ll certainly do our research on it.”
“They have to do something,” Hanratty said. “We’re doing the best we can now.”
As he spoke, an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office patrol car pulled in. Hanratty and his 128-officer staff were about to add another guest to their list.
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OKALOOSA COUNTY JAIL: TIMELINE
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office operated the county jail until the Board of County Commissioners created the Okaloosa County Department of Corrections in 1989.
Here’s a timeline for the present U.S. Highway 90 East jail:
1963: Jail built to house 124 inmates
Early 1980s: Capacity reduced by state regulations to 82 inmates
1981: Inmates win lawsuit claiming inadequate housing conditions; U.S. Marshals seize county bank accounts to force compliance with lawsuit
1982: New minimum security section with 82 beds added
1985: New addition brings capacity to 242 prisoners
End of 1980s: Jail population approaches 300 inmates
1992: Major expansion adds 232 beds to address overcrowding due to increased law enforcement, notably narcotics arrests
2003: Expansion adds 120 beds, raising capacity to 594 inmates
2007: Criminal Justice System Study decreases prisoner population; planned expansion put on hold
Source: Okaloosa County Department of Corrections
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa County begins planning for overcrowded jail expansion