Sacramento County invites public to discuss nearly $1 billion plan for new downtown jail annex
A community panel tasked with improving public transparency is inviting Sacramento County residents to participate in a meeting this month to discuss a nearly $1 billion plan to expand the Main Jail downtown and improve services for inmates.
The county’s Board of Supervisors last year, in a 3-2 vote, approved a plan to spend $925 million in bond debt to build a new intake and mental health annex at the downtown jail. The construction costs had ballooned from a $450 million estimate initially proposed in December 2022.
The county has since approved a contract of nearly $600,000 to hire CGL Cos. to review the jail expansion project and determine whether it can be reduced and still provide much-needed improvements for inmate services.
The company, which is in the process of reviewing the project’s documentation, will discuss its peer review at 6 p.m. July 16 at a meeting of the Sacramento County Community Review Commission, county officials said in a news release.
The commission meets in the Board of Supervisors chambers at 700 H St. downtown. The commission meetings also are streamed online. The commission invited the public to participate in the July 16 meeting or submit questions in advance by sending an email to CRC@saccounty.gov.
The supervisors raised concerns about the expensive price tag for the jail expansion. In comparison, the county’s entire budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year was $8.4 billion.
Supervisors Rich Desmond, Sue Frost and Pat Hume voted for it at Aug. 8 meeting, all saying they hated doing so. Supervisors Patrick Kennedy and Phil Serna voted against the spending plan.
“I don’t think our pencil’s sharp enough. ... Do I think a facility is necessary? Yes, but I’m not here yet,” Kennedy said during the August meeting. “The price tag is just too much for me to swallow.”
The project for the new jail annex is to comply with the Mays Consent Decree, which the county entered into in 2019. It requires the county to improve conditions at the two jail facilities run by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
Serna has said the consent decree does not require the construction of this new facility.
“I freely admit there is clearly a need for improved conditions in our jail, improved availability of resources for mental health treatment in our jail system,” Serna said in the August meeting. “But when it’s approaching the numbers that it is at this point, I feel more strongly than I did back in December, that I don’t want to necessarily look back and say that, for different reasons, that I was boxed in, and I had no other choice.”
The approved spending plan does not require the county to spend nearly $1 billion on the project, but it gives officials the option to do so. Construction would begin in 2026, and the annex would not open before 2028.
Since then, county administrators put a hold on all planning activities for the jail annex as they sought a peer review of the project. In April, the county approved a $585,980 contract to hire CGL Cos. to look for efficiencies in the project and make recommendations as to whether the project scope can be reduced and still achieve compliance with the consent decree.
On its website, CGL’s philosophy is listed as: “We believe bricks and mortar are the last resort rather than the first. As partners, we develop solutions that are responsive to social needs—restoring the legitimate role of the community in the justice system.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2024 at 2:26 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Serna and Kennedy felt jail expansion was needed.
