$85 million Platte County Jail project on August ballot
PLATTE COUNTY, Mo. — Platte County voters will decide in August if they’ll pay for an $85 million jail renovation and expansion after Platte County Commissioners unanimously decided to put the issue on the ballot Monday.
It’s a project that’s been talked about and studied for years while the current jail facility in Platte City became increasingly overcrowded.
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The expansion would increase the capacity from 180 beds to 471 while creating dedicated space for mental health care, suicide watch and educational opportunities for inmates. The jail population is routinely around 200, making Platte County sometimes send inmates to other counties when they have space.
The project would be paid for by $85 million in bonds through the county. Those bonds would be paid for with a half-cent sales tax. Voters would have to approve the bond and sales tax in separate ballot questions that Commissioners put on the August ballot Monday morning.
“$85 million seems like a lot of money to go towards our prison systems when they could be going towards education, maybe towards welfare to help these people,” life-long Platte County resident Heather Hopkins said.
Still, she says she’ll likely vote for the expanded and renovated jail project and the sales tax to pay for it.
“It’s scary that we need that many beds just in Platte County, I think, to begin with,” Hopkins said. “If it’s what’s needed then I think that’s what we need to do.”
Platte County Commissioner Joe Vanover says part of the steep price are the features of the expanded and renovated facility that would address some of Hopkins’ concerns.
“Some inmates want to do Alcoholics Anonymous classes or get their GED and that’s an important part that modern jails include, and this is the cost of building any sort of major public work. It’s a lot of money,” Vanover said.
Part of the challenge is Platte County’s rapidly expanding population where new developments are bringing more people, and sometimes, more crime.
“In my personal opinion, this is the one weakness in the future of the county,” Vanover said. “We have great law enforcement but the jail is full and when that happens, the rest of law enforcement can just fall apart if you don’t have enough space for the people that need to be there.”
Roger Lewis is a former Kansas City Police Officer and Platte County Public Safety Committee Vice Chair, which recommended the jail expansion, renovation and the measures to pay for it. Now, he says he’s ready to join the Platte County Commissioners in selling the plan to voters.
“Nobody is a big fan of taxes, but when those situations arise and those obstacles come up because of the growth of the county and other factors that come into play, it becomes the time to bite the bullet so to speak,” Lewis said.
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Both the bond measure and the sales tax have to pass for the jail project to move forward. If either one fails in August, Commissioners can either try again in a later election or go back to the drawing board.
The two jail ballot initiatives will be with other primary races in August, avoiding the General Election and Presidential Election in November.
It also would separate the jail ballot questions from an attempt to pass a 1/4 cent sales tax that would fund the Platte County Children’s Fund organized by Synergy Services and Beacon Mental Health.
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