TOLEDO, Ohio — Lucas County Commissioners and Sheriff Mike Navarre alongside project partners broke ground on the site of the new Lucas County jail Monday, a project now many years in the making.
The new detention center, which will house defendants awaiting trial, will be located in downtown Toledo, a block from the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas. According to a press release, foundation construction will begin in early 2024 with an expected completion date of fall 2026.
Its construction is estimated to cost $200 million. In April, Lucas County received a $10 million grant from the state of Ohio that will go toward the cost of construction.
RELATED: Commissioners approve funding for soil samples, ground testing at new Lucas County jail site
"We are thrilled to officially break ground and move this project forward," Commissioner Pete Gerken said in the press release. "Our new detention center will mark a new day of efficient, economical and humane housing for inmates in Lucas County. Our current facility has cost taxpayers more money than it's worth over the years. This new detention center is a cost-effective solution that allows our sheriff's office to implement industry-best practices."
The two-story, 217,000 square foot facility will include an increased capacity of 430 people, specialized housing for "youthful offenders" aged 18 to 25, specialized housing for senior inmates and in-house infirmary care for 24 people.
It will also include the faculties to house and treat defendants with serious mental illnesses who do not require off-site psychiatric care, according to the press release. These resources are intended to stabilize symptoms of mental illness, provide access to therapies and provide inmates with links to resources to facilitate re-entry to society.
"Mental health and substance abuse disorder have been plaguing communities for far too long and Lucas county is no exception, " Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak said in a statement. "Our new capacity to treat mental health at the detention center will improve the overall wellness of our community and better facilitate the process of ethical rehabilitation."
Lucas County officials have worked for years to come up with a plan to replace the county's Spielbusch Avenue jail, which opened in 1977. For decades the county has operated under a federal consent decree to reduce inmate population at the overcrowded facility and more recently officials have pointed out its structural deficiencies that don't allow for direct supervision of prisoners.
Late in 2022, the commissioners discussed the site of the current Toledo Lucas County Health Department along Erie Street as a potential site for a new jail.
Navarre has said he wants the county to build a new, downtown jail that does not require a tax levy for funding. He also has said he wants the jail to house only pre-trial inmates rather than a combination of prisoners awaiting trial and prisoners serving misdemeanor sentences.
In 2018 the commissioners proposed building a $180 million jail complex along Detroit Avenue in north Toledo that would have included pre-trial inmates, post-conviction prisoners and a behavioral health solutions center.
The Detroit Avenue location was the third recent site county officials chose for the new jail after public outcry about two previous sites in south Toledo forced them to scrap plans and continue searching for a place to build the new jail.
But officials have discussed new jail sites off and on for years. In 2003 the commissioners briefly discussed building a new jail inside the wire at the state's Toledo Correctional Institution.
Voters rejected the levy in 2018 that would have funded the new jail planned for Detroit Avenue and, a year later, approved a ballot measure that requires the county to build a new jail downtown.
In mid-2020, the commissioners discussed the health department building as a site for a new jail.
In June of that year, the county hired Poggemeyer Design Group to do pre-architectural work on a plan for a jail there. At the time the commissioners said they believed a three- or four-story jail on the health department site would cost about $100 million.
MORE FROM WTOL 11