JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As talks continue about building a new jail and sheriff’s office in Jacksonville, it’s also becoming a political issue. On Friday, the city council learned it would cost millions to fix up the current jail before a new one is ever built somewhere else.
One city council member blamed the sheriff for not addressing the issue sooner.
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Those concerns and safety issues came up during a special city council committee meeting Friday looking at the problems of the jail. It could cost over $9 million to bring the jail up to par to make it safe now for inmates and employees. Not only is mold a problem, but elevators break down, and there are AC and plumbing issues, improvements that need to be made now even though it is expected a new jail will be built in the near future.
Councilman Jimmy Peluso who was at the meeting is troubled by that and blames Sheriff T.K. Waters for not addressing it earlier when the council passed Waters’ budget this year for over $500 million.
“It feels like a bait and switch, frankly,” Peluso said. “The fact that we worked in good coordination with JSO during this entire budget process, and now the sheriff is asking for more money. And frankly, again, we’ve got his own correctional officers who are now in an unsafe environment, as well as the inmates that are there too.”
Waters said on Wednesday he was unaware of Councilman Peluso’s concerns. Waters said he had heard Peluso was looking into how other smaller jails were operated.
“That jail is a big building, with a lot of a lot of things going on,” Waters said. “The maintenance costs are high. I will tell you, it’s high. But for him to make that statement without again without talking to me about it, I’d have to ask him, see where that comes from.”
The sheriff’s staff reached out to Peluso on Wednesday but as of yet the two have not been in contact about this issue. One thing everyone agrees on, the jail problems are going to have to be addressed.
There will be more meetings, more discussion and more than likely millions in tax dollars used to make repairs before the city spends over $380 million to build a new one.