DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. — The cost of building a new county jail could be in the range of $1 billion based on "back of envelope" number-crunching, according to the City Council member leading a special committee that is examining what the new jail should entail.
The ongoing study remains in the conceptual phase and has not yet done any in-depth cost analysis for a new jail, but council members expect it will cost substantially more than the estimates the city has been using in recent years.
The high cost of building a new jail would come on top of the expense for renovating the city-owned football stadium for a lease extension with the Jaguars. In the case of the stadium, the Jaguars presented a proposed design estimated at up to $1.4 billion. If the city and Jaguars owner Shad Khan reach a deal, they would split the cost.
A new jail would likely cost less than a renovated football stadium, but the cost of the jail would fall solely on taxpayers, making it a bigger lift for the city's budget.
City Council member Michael Boylan, who is chairman of the special committee said a "ballpark" estimate for the new jail would be around $1.2 billion when construction after city leaders decided exactly what they want to build.
"I don't think it's unreasonable that we're going to end up in a range like that," he said.
City Council President Ron Salem, who formed the special committee, said he's heard figures ranging from $500 million to $800 million.
"What I think is important is that we build something that is expandable as the city grows," he said.
He said the city needs to have a 50-year lens for the future jail needs.
In recent years, the city's capital improvement program has used an estimated cost of $244 million for building a 3,000-bed jail off Lannie Road on the Northside, a $41 million price tag for a second 500-bed jail for short-term holding of inmates somewhere in downtown, and a new Police Memorial Building for the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office headquarters at an estimated cost of $96 million.
That $381 million for those three buildings has been in place for several years. The cost of construction has gone up since then because of inflation. In addition, the jail study is examining how to build a campus-style facility on a campus with space for future expansion and services compared to the cramped high-rise facility in downtown.
Part of the study is looking a ways to provide mental health treatment for people who are arrested and could best be served with treatment so they do not keep cycling through the criminal justice system.
The City Council committee also examining vocational training so those going through the jail have skills that will make it less likely they will return to crime. Those types of "wraparound services" add to the overall cost of building a new jail.
In Pima County, Arizona, a blue-ribbon commission issued a report in December that said building a 3,162-bed corrections facility would cost a projected $858 million. In Fulton County, Georgia, a jail feasibility study presented in December showed a projected cost of about $1.7 billion to $2 billion for a jail with 4,392 to 5,480 beds.
The City Council committee and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office have been discussing an alternative to building a new headquarters building by instead leasing space for the administrative side of the sheriff's office. One potential building to lease that space is the Florida Blue building on Riverside Avenue in downtown's Brooklyn neighborhood.
While leasing space would avoid the cost of constructing a new headquarters building, the city still would be millions of dollar a year for the lease.
The special City Council committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall, 117 W. Duval St.