KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne covers issues surrounding government accountability, solutions and consumer advocacy. Share your story with Isabella.
It's been years since Kansas City, Missouri, had its own jail, prompting city leaders to ask voters to approve a sales tax to build a new detention center.
The lack of a municipal detention center has led to several issues, as the KSHB 41 I-Team discovered.
More than 500 Kansas City, Missouri inmates had been released early from Vernon and Johnson County jails.
On Monday, a Jackson County legislator proposed that Kansas City use the county's detention center at East 13th and Cherry streets in downtown while the city builds its new facility.
Jackson County inmates are set to transfer to the county's new detention center by February, leaving the existing building empty.
Legislator Sean Smith proposed a 30-day study to examine the feasibility of Kansas City temporarily using the detention center.
"The truth is, there's no plan [after February]," Smith said. "People have kicked around ideas."
Under Smith's idea, Kansas City could use the facility and only pay for the operation and maintenance costs. Those could cost millions per year.
Smith explained time is of the essence to find a solution to Kansas City not having its own jail.
"When Kansas City businesses are being broken into, when crimes are being committed, when people feel unsafe, I just think it should be all layers of government trying to do everything they can to correct that," he said.
Kansas City needs more detention center bed space with current crime rates and the World Cup coming in 2026.
"We understand this is a very, very serious issue for Kansas City," 4th District At-Large Kansas City Councilmember Crispin Rea said.
But Kansas City leaders like Councilmember Rea feel moving into Jackson County's old detention center isn't a good fit.
"I would be concerned at how much money it would take to make a floor or two of that eight-story building sufficient for our needs," Rea said. "It's not a viable option."
According to a 2020 evaluation commissioned by the county on the existing detention center, the building would require extensive renovation to address the conditions and design layout.
"No matter the investment, the space will not be a safe space for staff or inmates," the report stated.
"It is hard to consider that an option," Rea said. "We have real solutions in front of us that we are very close to executing on."
Rea is referring to a modular temporary jail, which would consist of mobile structures to detain people.
"There are options out there that other communities have used to detain folks in a way that is safe and secure," Rea said.
The Kansas City Council passed a resolution last week affirming their efforts to invest in a modular jail structure as a temporary solution while the detention center is built.
Councilman Rea explained investing in the Jackson County detention center could take away from some of the long- term efforts voters approved in April.
"If we're going to solve this in the long term, we need to stop with the Band-Aid fixes," Rea said. "We told voters we would use that funding to build a new detention and rehabilitation center. We need to keep that promise."
Jackson County plans to vote on the proposal to initiate a study on KC using the detention center in the coming weeks, but it will only move forward if Kansas City is on board.
"[The detention center] does have its challenges, but I think as a temporary option, it may be better than building something temporary, which is what [Kansas City] is planning on doing," Smith said.
"Jackson County is getting out of that facility for a reason and it's the same reasons that we should think very long and hard about wanting to go into that facility," Rea said.
