The Kansas City Council on Thursday approved a deal to send city inmates to a Jackson County detention facility downtown. Report from KansasCity.com.
The ordinance authorizes city staff to proceed with a regional jail concept, committing $3.1 million annually to house 150 prisoners a day in the county facility. The city will also provide money for construction costs estimated at $2.1 million. The city hopes to save $1 million in annual city jail operations, and the aging Municipal Correctional Institution will close.
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Kansas City MO Manager Wayne Cauthen wants to use $1.5 million from a public safety sales tax to expand the Jackson County Jail — a project never marketed to voters. His plan angers Kansas City police.
Voters were told in 2002 that the quarter-cent sales tax would earmark $110 million for the Police Department, $13.2 million for Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust, and $3 million for tornado sirens and emergency preparedness. At the time, police told voters their share of tax proceeds would fund 10 specific capital improvement projects. The jail project was not on the list, Police Chief Jim Corwin said. “This is not what was sold to the public,” Corwin said Monday. “We feel it is inappropriate.”
Cauthen suggested in his budget proposal to divert $1.5 million from Police Department projects to renovate the county jail so it can accommodate city prisoners. The City Council voted last week to close the current city jail in order to save $1 million. City officials believe using the money for the jail is proper, spokeswoman Mary Charles said Monday. “It is a public safety sales tax, not just a police sales tax,” she said. “We believe it is a benefit to police, even though it wasn’t on the original list.”
More on this dispute in the Kansas City Star.
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