BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Less than three years after a new pod was constructed at Brown County’s jail, another addition is in the works.
However, county officials say it should be considered a replacement for the downtown jail, which has not had overnight guests in more than three years.
Brown County is about to start gathering bids for the jail construction, which is budgeted at $12.75 million.
Built in 1963, Brown County’s downtown jail, next to the courthouse, is on its last legs.
“Well the building needs to come down,” said Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach. “It’s antiquated. It’s outdated. It doesn’t serve its public purpose anymore.”
The jail’s 131 beds have been empty since about a year into COVID, according to Sheriff Todd Delain.
Yet, the county currently has 59 inmates staying in jails outside of Brown County, at a cost of about $45 per day per inmate — or an overall cost of about $2,655 a day.
Delain says it would take a minimum of five correctional officers to reopen and staff the downtown jail. That compares to two officers for the pod that opened in October 2021 at the main jail on the Green Bay’s east side, which has about the same inmate capacity as the downtown facility.
The sheriff also says staffing the downtown jail would likely require overtime pay considering the jail division is currently short 16 correctional officers.
“Right now it’s more cost effective to ship them to other counties,” said Delain. “The problem is that as other jails fill up, it becomes more and more difficult to find bed space. When that occurs, we’re transporting them a further distance away.”
That ups the urgency to get a new jail pod built, which will have about the same number of beds as the downtown jail. The hope is to have it ready by July of 2026.
By that time, plans should be known for the downtown jail site. County officials say laying out a formal plan for what to do with the site will likely begin next year with the annual update to the county’s six-year capital improvement plan.
“From my perspective, some of the things that I think need to be considered is secure courtrooms,” said Delain. “Currently Brown County only has two secure court rooms. Everything else you’re moving inmates through an open area where people can walk right up to them.”
“We first need to get the state to give us additional judges in order to accommodate that type of space,” said Streckenbach.
Streckenbach says he’s been pushing the state to fund two more judges and seven district attorney positions. He says that would help the backlog of nearly 2,800 felony cases that haven’t been heard. 364 of those have been waiting almost two years or more.
“Effectively that is three of our jail pods operating because the state is not funding Brown County’s court system effectively,” said Streckenbach.
Streckenbach says the judge and DA requests are based off per capita comparisons with other counties and the length of time cases have been waiting.
Brown County is putting out a request for proposals for the jail construction. It took one year to design and one year to construct the most recent jail pod. The hope is going through that process only a few years ago will speed up the timeline for this pod.
Comments