There is no easy way to finance and build a new jail

Sep. 28—For well over 10 years, the Pulaski County Fiscal Court has grappled with the issue of an undersized and inadequate county jail. Built in 1989, the Pulaski County Detention Center (PCDC) was designed to house 112 inmates. Now the 34-year old facility has been busting at the seams with a daily inmate count soon to surpass the 400 mark.

Not only has the inmate population far exceeded the current capacity of PCDC, which as been expanded to 171 beds, but the facility needs major renovations and expansion. The ideal situation would be to build a new facility to replace the current PCDC facility, which would allow more room to meet the current over-crowded capacity. Better yet, a new larger facility would allow the local jail to take in more state and federal inmates, which would in turn help make the facility profitable.

Everyone in county government knows that something has to be done to resolve their current jail dilemma. But the question is, "How can we afford it?"

This past Tuesday at the Pulaski County Fiscal Court meeting, a feasibility study was presented showing that a new 650-bed prison facility could be built at the price of nearly $53 million (which does not even include the land to build it on). With interest rates approaching the 8-percent mark, a new jail could drain a large portion of the county's budget.

In 2010, former Pulaski County Jailer Mike Harris presented the fiscal court a proposal on a 800-bed facility, with 25 acres of land, for a price of $35 million. The county passed on that offer 13 years ago with maybe the same financial concerns the current administration is grappling with. But looking back now, it was probably seemed like the "Deal of the Century."

In 2017, Laurel County Jailer Jamie Mosley probably got the same reaction when he proposed the Laurel County Fiscal Court cough up $34 million for a new 700-bed detention center. Two years later, Mosley was deemed a hero after Laurel County became one of only a few counties in Kentucky to operate a self-sufficient jail operation — saving the county nearly $2.7 million each year.

At present, the Pulaski County jail facility is operating on a $1.6 million loss per year. That annual debt could become even bigger when, or if, the county decides to upgrade or build a new jail facility.

An upgrade to the current PCDC facility may seem like the less painful and less expensive option. However, the current facility could only expand a minimum amount and adding beds would only require other facility upgrades, including an expansion of the kitchen and laundry areas, as well as working on a new roof. Also, an upgrade would not allow for any addition revenue and the local facility would continue to operate in the red.

The other option would be to close the jail facility down and house the county's inmates in other out-of-county jails. This would still cost the county up to $5 million per year. But even more devastating would be that local law enforcement would have to travel out of town to transfer prisoners, leaving local enforcement vulnerable and shorthanded in their attempt in protecting the third-largest county in the state.

If the county decides to do nothing about the current jail situation, a higher authority may step in and force the PCDC facility to shut down due to inadequate conditions.

Almost every option the Pulaski County Fiscal Court is looking at is extremely costly, and the only way this crisis might be resolved is to somehow increase the county's incoming revenue. Barring a huge influx of new county taxpayers flooding the local area, raising taxes might be the county's solution to this jail problem.

No one wants to pay higher taxes during these already tough economic times. County officials fear pushback from taxpayers having to pay more just to build a new jail. Like it or not, housing inmates is the responsibility of the county government — which is an extension of each and every one of us.

And while alcohol might have contributed to the plight of several of the current inmates at PCDC, it has been considered as an outside solution to funding the financing of a new jail facility. Some have considered the economic impact on the county's budget in the county were to ever go wet. The taxes generated from county alcohol sales could potentially go towards funding a new jail facility.

The county and its inner locales have endured several wet-dry elections over the past 50 years, and they were never pretty. I am not sure this county could endure another one and I am not sure anyone has the desire to go down that road again.

For over a decade, the county has been "kicking the can" down a road of their own — when it comes to the decision to financing and building a new jail.

They have now come to the end of that road and it is time to stop kicking the can and build a new jail.

Contact Steve Cornelius at scornelius@somerset-kentucky.com.