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Kansas City, Missouri, is moving forward with plans for a temporary, modular jail. It would most likely consist of manufactured trailers securely built together to form a detention center compound.
The modular jail would be used until the permanent detention center is completed off of Highway 40.
KCMO has not had its own municipal jail since 2015, and is facing a significant bed shortage for inmates. It's led to the city sending inmates out to Vernon and Johnson Counties in Missouri. The KSHB 41 I-Team learned hundreds of inmates were released from those jails before they were due out in the community.
Kansas City is looking at two options for the modular jail. One that would cost $19.2 million to build and the other would cost $15.9 million to build, according to filings with the city. They would add 100 and 130 beds, respectively.
It'll be years before Kansas City's permanent detention center is built. But business owners and neighbors still suffer from the ongoing crimes with no place to put offenders.
“People don't want to come to this part of town, and that means they don't want to come to some of our incredible businesses," Kevin Klinkenberg said.
Klinkenberg is the executive director of Midtown KC Now and part of a group that brought the idea of a modular jail to city leaders. He explained how he took inspiration from a temporary modular jail in Greene County, Missouri, near Springfield.
“It's not like a trailer in the sense that you think of like a mobile home trailer, but it is a manufactured unit in a factory," Klinkenberg said. "They're not cheap and flimsy, but they're also not meant to be there for 20 or 30 years. It's something meant to fill a gap for 5-10 years."
The $19.2 million plan would have 130 beds and cost $192,300 per inmate. It's expected to cost $25 million in yearly operating costs. The $15.9 million option would have 100 beds, cost $214,000 per bed and cost $21.4 million in yearly operating expenses.
“We're either going to be spending that money directly ourselves, or we're going to spending that money outsourcing it to somebody else," Klinkenberg said. "Or we're spending the money on just dealing with problems that just don't get solved on an everyday basis."
The modular jail would go near the city's tow lot off of Front Street in the Northeast part of the city. City leaders are hopeful it will be done before the World Cup, before thousands are expected to be in the metro.
“That's the hope," Councilman Crispin Rea said. "That's the goal.”
Rea and Klinkenberg believe this is the right short-term solution to the city's detention center needs.
“If we're going to solve this in the long term, we need to stop with the band-aid fixes, and we need the long-term strategy," Rea said.
“We feel like this is the right solution," Klinkenberg said. "This is not going to solve everything in our community, but it's a big step forward to really dealing with a lot a lot of issues that we have.”
Both of those proposed plans for the modular jail were referred to a committee last week. They’re expected to be up for discussion at the city council meeting on Oct. 14.
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