Scott County supervisors on Thursday will consider hiring a consulting firm to begin the process of planning for a tentative bond referendum in the fall to pay for an expanded Juvenile Detention Center.
Supervisors met Tuesday as a Committee of the Whole to discuss a recommendation to hire Wold Architect and Engineers to draw up preliminary designs, gather public feedback and launch a voter education campaign.
Five consulting firms submitted proposals, with costs ranging from $37,000 to $99,000.
The architecture and engineering firm had previously, in June of 2019, delivered a 120-page assessment of the county's juvenile detention center and jail. The report outlined a need to increase the number of beds at the detention center, including a plan projecting the need for 64 beds in the next 20 years. The projected cost to renovate or rebuild the detention center on 4th Street in Davenport ranged from roughly $16 million to $23 million.
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The bigger space is needed, county officials have said, so that juveniles will no longer be housed with the adult population. And when the JDC reaches capacity, the county must spend money to house youths in facilities in other counties.
"Our combined total between juvenile detention and the jail is averaging right around 25 juveniles per day over the last three years. Currently, we only have 18 beds licensed so we're going to need more space," said Jeremy Kaiser, Scott County director of the Juvenile Detention and Diversion Programs.
A federal mandate also requires that a youth awaiting trial as an adult be removed from jail starting in December, unless a court finds that they cannot be safely held in juvenile detention. A bill in the Iowa Legislature would move up that deadline to July 1, Kaiser said.
"In our particular community, we are holding quite a few juveniles in the jail still currently because of a lack of space," Kaiser said. "I assume we can hold 90% to 95% of those adult waivers. So our population will be dramatically increasing overnight, if the state legislation goes into effect July 1."
Under the proposal, the city would pay $37,000 to have Wold delve deeper into the detention center's needs to come up with a more detailed design and proposal to present to supervisors, and possibly the public, for approval.
After gathering public feedback, supervisors would decide whether to continue with the proposal and put a question on the ballot in November.
Should the board do so, the consultant would then launch a public outreach campaign to educate votes about the referendum. Iowa law prohibits government bodies from advocating for the passage or defeat of a ballot issue.
The last time Scott County asked voters to pass a ballot referendum was in 2004 with the passage of $29.7 million bond issue to renovate and expand the county jail.
Supervisor Tony Knobbe said he supports the recommendation, while Ken Croken said he could not support the plan "unless and until there is a commitment by this board to invest significant dollars in restorative justice and other programs that would reduce the need" for more cells.
Davenport Mayor Mike Matson last week announced city officials plan to push forward a funding proposal in the hopes of getting a long-talked about Juvenile Assessment Center off the ground. Matson called on the county and surrounding communities "to also step up."
The center would provide early intervention screening and assessment for youth and families to identify and address factors contributing to concerning behavior that if unchecked could lead to criminal activity. The goal is to create a one-stop-shop where youth and families seeking help can access and navigate an array of local services available under one roof.
Kaiser said part of the consultant's work would be to "help facilitate the process to make sure we're developing not just a facility, but a facility with services in place to respond to crime the best way possible," including trauma-informed care.
"We do spend quite a bit of our activities already in restorative justice programming," Kaiser said, responding to Croken. "And I am open to what more we can do, of course, to continue to lower our juvenile detention average population. But, the fact remains we still don't have enough space."
