Time almost up for old police detention center

The new police headquarters which was dedicated yesterday.

People showed off the newly renovated downtown police station Thursday, but another advance there took shape quietly in the city council.

Officials presented the plan to close the grim eight-floor police detention center there that dates from 1937.

The 100-bed unit has severe legal compliance issues that would take at least $5 million to fix, officials said.

‘That was just a lawsuit waiting to happen,” said Councilman John Sharp, chair of the public safety committee.

People showed off the newly renovated downtown police station Thursday, but another  advance there took shape quietly in the city council.

So the city is expanding a contract with Jackson County to detain people in the county jail. Starting in May, the county will take in 100 of those arrested.

It will also take in 170 city sentenced inmates over weekends and the current 150 that it handles during the week.

In addition, three of the new Kansas City police stations will start holding arrested detainees for up to six hours, by which time most will bond out.

The city will pay $970,000 for modifications to the county jail and the rate for all their city offenders there will be $52.50 a day or a total of $5.3 million a year.

That is less than the $63 per offender that the county charges under its current contract with the city.

That contract started when the city closed the old municipal farm jail in 2009, a controversial move at the time.

Councilwoman Cindy Circo said the council opted for the contract after deciding not to go to private jails for moral reasons. Turf wars and confusions followed but people worked through them, she said.

And everybody learned, she said, that there are sometimes better ways than the old ways.

As for the old jail area now, the land is a center for a gardening operation, as Circo said, “with its own story to tell.”