Expansion plans for Platte County Detention Center could triple size of jail

Platte County commissioners are weighing a proposal that would triple the size of the Platte County Detention Center.

The detention center’s last major expansion, in 1998, added 150 beds. The population of Platte County has since grown by nearly 80%, officials said.

The jail now houses 180 inmates, with second beds added to some cells. But there have been days when 240 people are crammed into the detention center, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, said Platte County Sheriff Mark Owen.

“The jail is severely overcrowded,” Owen said. “It has been. We’ve taken every mitigation step that I can think of.”

A 2023 grand jury in a Missouri circuit court agreed that the jail was over capacity. Platte County Detention Center inmates were becoming more high-risk over time and the jail was understaffed with insufficient medical care provided.

In November 2023, the Platte County Committee for Public Safety recommended that the jail be expanded by 312 beds.

HMN Architects, an Overland Park firm that has designed several jails in Missouri, won a design contract for the Platte County Detention Center at the end of 2023.

Commissioners got their first look at the proposal during Monday’s meeting.

To build more cells, the firm proposed expanding the jail west along Vine Street. The three-story addition would include two levels of 160 beds each. Violent and non-violent offenders would be housed separately.

The county has had trouble maintaining kitchens, laundry rooms, and other facilities needed to support the detention center, county administrator Wes Minder said. More of these would be built in the basement, along with rooms for classes and programming.

“The committee for public safety — they were focused on beds,” said Adam Kuehl, an associate with HMN. “There’s also a lot of other things that go into expanding the jail.”

The area of the jail currently used for booking would be repurposed for medical support, Kuehl said. This would include more suicide watch cells and areas for ambulances to come directly in and out of the detention center.

To cut costs, Kuehl said, cells would be built off-site and then installed into the shell of the building.

“No frills — you can hook up the plumbing and be ready to go,” Kuehl said.

The board of commissioners did not discuss the cost of the proposal Monday.

At the jail’s current size, other municipalities — including Kansas City — can no longer send prisoners to Platte County. In past years, Owen said, this exchange helped reduce overcrowding and ensured violent offenders had somewhere else to be jailed.

The sheriff’s office feels that the jail has become an unsafe environment. Some areas are collapsing, Owen said, to the point that inmates can peel chunks of metal from the walls.

Officers have confiscated doorstops and loose bolts filed down sharp enough to penetrate bulletproof vests.

“With the deterioration of this jail, we’re providing them weapons,” Owen said.

The proposal would triple the size of the current detention center. Kuehl expects the county will not outgrow the expansion for at least 24 years.

HMN and the county do not plan to share detailed blueprints with the public, citing security concerns.

Platte county commissioners will meet again next week for another review of the plan. If approved, it will go before county voters this summer.

As residents prepare to vote, Platte County will pay a public relations firm at least $79,200 — and up to $84,200 — to promote the proposal.

Consultants will send mailers to at least 20,000 people, along with publishing “infomercials” and posting on social media.