TOLEDO, Ohio — Lucas County commissioners on Tuesday voted to approve a study into a new jail facility that could take over the current Toledo-Lucas County Health Department building.
Commissioners approved a $340,000 contract with Poggemeyer Design Group out of Bowling Green to conduct an analysis and four-part study on what is needed in a new jail, including location.
Lucas County Sheriff Mike Navarre stressed the new facility will only house pretrial inmates, or those awaiting a trial and not those that have already been sentenced. He said it can be financed without a tax increase and wants it to be centrally located in downtown Toledo.
The project being proposed is smaller than a new jail proposal from 2018, which held an estimated price tag of $180 million and would've housed sentenced inmates as well. Officials say that is why a new assessment is needed before they move forward with planning and cost.
The new facility could cost roughly $100 million, down from the larger jail project from a few years ago that was estimated at around $180 million.
Poggemeyer's study will take around seven months to complete and will look at four key areas:
- Population - who will make up the jail
- Programming - including how many units are needed to house inmates and how services will be offered (either centralized in one spot onsite or decentralized with each inmate module having its own)
- Rough cost estimates
- Site analysis for possible locations