With the groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 10 work has officially began on the controversial new misdemeanor jail being built in Des Moines.
The South Correctional Entity (SCORE) was established by the cities of Des Moines, Tukwila, Auburn, Federal Way and Renton to find a solution to the increasing problem of finding jail bed space. Burien and SeaTac joined these cities. The seven cities are all co-owners of the new jail, to be located at South 208th Street and 18th Avenue South.
Des Moines Police Chief Roger Baker, who is also the SCORE operations chair, said the jail will allow police to spend more time in the community instead of driving across the county to book an inmate.
"This is going to be a very important program for us, for law enforcement for making sure we have more time to keep the officers in the communities and not traveling clear across the county to do bookings at another facility," Baker said.
King County has said it would not renew a contract to house misdemeanor offenders when it expires in 2012. Currently some misdemeanor inmates are being sent to Yakima. Besides transportation costs the Yakima jail has been increasing the cost to house inmates there.
The single-story jail is being built to house 668 inmates. While it did little to placate angry homeowners who will become neighbors of the jail, the facility is being built to be as unobtrusive as possible.
After the land is cleared the next step in building the jail will be to lower the grade of the land so the jail will sit only 20 feet above where ground level is now.
Officially the 14 acres of land the jail is going to be built on was slated to be used for airport warehouses. But unofficially the land has been used as a jogging trail and mountain bike park.
In October SCORE plans to hire a contractor to construct the building.
The jail is for misdemeanor offenders, but the jail is being built to medium security specifications because of its proximity to houses.
Approximately 120 people will be employed by the jail.
The jail is scheduled to open in July of 2011 and will cost $80.5 million to complete.
At the groundbreaking Federal Way Mayor Jack Dovey noted the speed and ease with which the cities came together to solve the problem of jail space.
"We came together with a need that we all had, and we were able to work collaboratively together and get to a place that I don't think most people thought we would ever reach," Dovey said.
Des Moines Mayor Bob Sheckler also said he was surprised and happy with the ease the cities were able to work together.
"When you get that many politicians in a room something is bound to go haywire, but it never did here. I have never seen so much cooperation in my entire life," Sheckler said.