BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Brown County leaders want to start gathering construction proposals next month for the county’s possible multi-million-dollar jail expansion.
In the meantime, taxpayers continue to pay more and more for inmates, who are being shipped to neighboring communities.
Right now, Sheriff John Gossage tells FOX 11, 41 inmates that should be in Brown County’s jail are sitting in jails in Oconto and Outagamie Counties.
“As the summer months progress, it seems like those numbers get higher and higher and we get more congested.”
For each shipped out inmate, it costs the county $45 per day. $700,000 is budgeted this year to house inmates in other counties.
Sheriff John Gossage says the figures speak for themselves, and a jail expansion is needed.
County supervisors were able to tour the jail Wednesday evening, to see for themselves.
“It’s a good educational experience for them,” said Gossage.
It was an eye-opener for Brown County Supervisor Staush Gruszynski.
“When we came in there we definitely saw a lot of folks that were sitting in kind of the temporary holding, especially when we were going through.”
The jail expansion was projected to cost $20 million when the county board agreed last year to restart the half-percent sales tax.
It is one of several projects the money collected is supposed to pay for.
However, additional votes are needed to keep the expansion moving forward, and some supervisors are hesitant to dish out money for more jail space.
“I can now understand going through the tour where our correction officers and our sheriff are coming from with the capacity issues,” said Gruszynski.
“To me, it really highlights what we need to do on the front end, especially before pretrial to try to alleviate the situation.”
Pat Buckley, a Brown County Supervisor, also appreciated the up-close look.
“Do we want to see less people going to the jail? That would be great for the community. However, we do have a population issue in our jail.”
If a request for proposals is sent out next month, county workers say the board should be able to vote on a construction proposal by early September.
The expansion would add about 120 beds to the jail.
The jail is currently at 93 percent capacity.
However, some inmate groups are above capacity, and cannot mix with other groups that might have open beds, for example, high-risk inmates cannot be housed with inmates awaiting an initial court appearance.
