Johnson County Jail Finishes Major Expansion
At a ribbon cutting on Friday, Johnson County KS officials celebrated the finish of a $60 million jail expansion that makes the county jail system one of the largest in the state. Reported by the Kansas City Star.
The expansion at the jail in the Gardner area adds 554 beds, which is a total of 1,088 beds there and at the jail in Olathe. It will allow the county to save millions by ending the practice of housing inmates at jails elsewhere, officials said. Annabeth Surbaugh, chairwoman of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, said the county spent $30 million in the last nine years to house inmates at other jails — about half the cost of the jail addition.
County Sheriff Frank Denning said of the 153,000-square-foot addition, “Building jails is not a happy thing,” but is necessary for society and quality of life. To control the jail population, he said, officials are working to make more use of alternatives to jail, such as work release and other programs. “We are starting to challenge ourselves to reduce our jail population but to keep the community safety where it is,” he said.
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