The Sherburne County Jail may be expanding to accommodate more inmates.

 

At a workshop Tuesday. Sheriff Joel Brott gave the board of commissioners an update on a plan by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to streamline its operations by consolidating its prisoner population location. 

 

Brott said the Sherburne County Jail received a $7 million investment by the federal Government in 1999. That guaranteed 180 beds for the U.S. Marshal’s Office and Immigration.

 

In 2005, the county went through a $16 million expansion that increased the size to 400 beds for the U.S. Marshal’s. Under the Federal agreement, the county only received payment for those beds that were occupied.

 

In 2017, the county signed a separate contract with ICE that guaranteed 300 beds over five years. Under the new contract, the county is paid for the beds whether they are occupied or not.

Now ICE is requesting proposals (RFP) to expand even more. Brott said there are many standards to meet for any organization making a proposal.

 

“Some of the most basic of standards in the RFP are capacity and distance to Fort Snelling,” said Brott.

 

For capacity. ICE’s preference, and the one rated “excellent” is an operational capacity of at least 500 beds. Other standards in the RFP include “good” - 450-499 beds; “acceptable” - 400-449 beds; “marginal” -  300-399 beds and “unacceptable” - less than 300 beds.

 

Brott said in order for the county jail to be competitive in the RFP process, it would need to construct six more housing units of 48 beds each to reach the 500-bed mark.

 

Brott said there are also other factors to consider. The county jail is currently operating under 2000 ICE standards. The RFP is asking for an upgrade in standards to the 2011 level with some 2016 standard revisions.

 

“It’s a fairly lengthy list, but the primary ones are in programming,  medical and mental health services,” he said. “I want to mention the increase in those standards extends to all inmate populations. So there would be access and benefit for the county inmates as well.”

 

He said when the new RFP starts in 2023 the Sherburne County Jail will be obsolete.

 

“We have the inability in our current facility to keep ICE detainees separate from the other inmate population,” said Brott. “That is a basic standard they released in the RFP.”

 

He also said the special housing unit, built in 1979, will need to be replaced in a few years whether or not the county decides to send a proposal for the new ICE RFP.

 

Brott said adding three housing units of 48 beds each would still only be marginally acceptable for ICE. But it would also increase the total inmate population from 732 to 876.

 

“The current core services such as kitchen, laundry, receiving and intake is undersized to meet this capacity,” he said. “So we would not be allowed to increase our capacity unless we improved our core infrastructure to support that capacity.”

 

He said to be cost-effective, the county’s best option would be to expand to 500 beds and do core improvements.

 

“Six housing units would give us an excellent rating as the RFP is written,” he said. If that RFP is submitted by the county, that would give us the best opportunity in terms of complying with what is requested and in terms of the revenue stream by adding all the expensive core infrastructure.”

 

Members of the board felt if there was an expansion, it would make sense to do the most to be competitive.

“Go big or go home,” said Commissioner Tim Dolan.

No construction costs were discussed, since it will be a competitive proposal process. All proposals are due May 20.