The Platte County Commission kicked off its informational meetings about the upcoming capital improvements tax in Parkville on Saturday, with the second meeting held in Weston Monday night veering off the subject due to statements read by a citizen.
Commissioners said about 25 people turned out for the Saturday meeting, held at the Platte County Community Center South. At the West Platte Fire Protection District building in Weston, the turnout was much lighter, with only about five citizens in attendance for a presentation by Capt. Joseph King from the Platte County Sheriff’s Office. King served as administrator of the detention center for several years and outlined how jail populations are calculated and the conditions at the current detention center.
The jail was built with 154 beds (including three temporary beds for holding cells and medical treatment) in 1998. In 2015, it was renovated to hold 180 beds, but the population continues to climb, due to various factors, such as increased length of stay for felony offenders awaiting adjudication. Currently, nine murder suspects are in the detention center awaiting trial.
Sometimes, the daily population may fall, but it also reaches peak highs, with the highest count in 2018 at 215 prisoners. In 2018, the jail completed 4,336 bookings with an average daily population of 185 — five beds beyond the expansion done in 2015.
“It doesn’t matter how many there are, we have to house them,” King said.
The jail is already overcrowded, as prisoners must be separated by their classification. Someone in jail for a minor offense should not be housed with a hardened criminal. Males and females must be housed separately and co-defendants in the same crime cannot be housed together either.
“Don’t mix the sharks in with the guppies,” King said.
The age of the facility is a concern as well, as deteriorating grating in the showers have tempted prisoners to break off chunks of metal to make improvised weapons. The showers can’t be repaired as there is no alternative location to provide to prisoners while the work is done.
Sheriff Mark Owen also spoke on the situation, assuring the audience he had no desire to build a jail to house inmates for payment. Currently, the detention center houses ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) detainees on a day-to-day basis if room is available within that prisoner classification. If they don’t have the room, they don’t take the ICE prisoners, but while on site the payments do help bolster deputy salaries.
Owen said operating the jail is not the same as running a hotel, as he doesn’t want the facility to be full. At 85 percent capacity, the jail is effectively full because it makes shuffling people around to fit the various statutory guidelines and classifications more difficult.
“Basically, we’re running a city inside of four walls and they don’t have a vote in there,” Owen said. “We don’t give them the Taj Mahal but we have to treat them humanely.”
To address these needs, the county has proposed a half cent sales tax, which would run for six and a quarter years, on the Tuesday, April 2 ballot. The expected $65 million raised would fund construction of a new jail facility and renovation of the old jail, in addition to other law enforcement related capital improvements.
Another meeting was held in Platte City Tuesday night. The next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21 at the Riverside Community Center. Meetings will also be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 27 at the Camden Point Fire Station and 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28 at the Platte County Resource Center.
Weston resident Jim Dejarnett read a statement during the question-and-answer portion of the forum. In it, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the commissioners, who promised during their campaigns to not raise taxes. Presiding commissioner Ron Schieber and district commissioners Dagmar Wood and John Elliott were in attendance at the forum, with Schieber addressing Dejarnett’s comments.
Dejarnett referred to the proposed jail as a “prison palace,” stating that if the measure did pass none of the current commissioners would remain in office to see the new jail open. A future commission could decide to use the funds for another project, he said, because they were tempted by “the pot of gold at the end of the cell block rainbow.”
“This commission pushes for a $65 million pot of gold with no firm plans and another commission gets to spend it,” Dejarnett said. “That’s Zona Rosa in reverse.”
Dejarnett said the current plan would “do more for county Democrats than the Democrats could do for themselves,” noting that Democratic candidate David Park had received a fair amount of support in the November election when he ran against Schieber.
He also stated that during a recent Platte County Economic Development Council meeting that the board declined to endorse the ballot measure.
Schieber said he deserved the criticism.
“We did a jail study that said we’re going to grow by seven and a half prisoners every year for the next 20 years — bottom line is we’re going to need beds,” Schieber said. “Ideally, we would have been able to finish futures (the basement of the current jail) and that would have solved the problem.”
Unfortunately, he said, after investigation they discovered finishing futures would be temporary solution.
“I know you’re disappointed; I understand it; I don’t blame you — I deserve every bit of criticism, but I’m trying to do what’s right for the overall community,” Schieber said.
Resident Antonio Cutolo-Ring said he looked at the situation from the opposite perspective.
“When not raising taxes ever becomes a doctrine that creates issues throughout the county and the state and everything,” Cutulo-Ring said. “To me, I don’t have a problem, when there’s a need, to raise taxes — that’s a part of the way things work.”
He said the prevailing opposition to tax increases in the county was part of the problem that now creates a need for a tax to fund the jail project.
Weston resident Jeff Elsea had a different criticism of the public forum, stating he believed the commissioners should have made the presentation on the financial plan instead of relying on the Sheriff’s Department.
More information can be found at infoplattejail.com.