The Johnson County Board of Supervisors appears set to ask voters to green-light a bond for a new 120-bed jail and sheriff’s office.
Though plans are not finalized, three of the five supervisors appeared supportive of a proposal by Chair Jon Green that would set the bond amount at $99 million. The new jail and sheriff’s office would again be housed under the same roof, and the project is estimated to cost somewhere in the range of $80 million.
The county would also need to spend money on land acquisition, with supervisors guessing that cost to be around $5 million. No site has been identified at this point in the process. Additional space would be available and “shelled out” to provide opportunities for expansion of the jail to 140 beds in the future as needed.
Any unspent money from the $99 million bond would be allocated to support affordable housing efforts on the county level under Green’s proposal.
The county is expected to continue to refine ballot language in the coming months before turning the bond measure over to voters in November 2026.
Jail beds persist as key decision point
Since the Board of Supervisors, the sheriff and consultants began talking about plans for a new jail in 2023, conversations and progress have often hinged on the capacity of the jail, specifically the number of beds.
The current Johnson County Jail is home to 92 beds, with an average daily population of just over 86 inmates, according to Sheriff Brad Kunkel’s 2024 annual report.
Because of past design decisions and staff and inmate safety, the operational capacity of the current jail is about 65 inmates, according to Kunkel’s 2024 report. That means the county sends out inmates to other jails.
Supervisor Mandi Remington suggested in a letter to her colleagues that a future building remains at 92 beds. Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz said they would only support 100 beds, pointing to data that shows the jail’s average daily population has continued to fall in recent years.
Supervisors Rod Sullivan, Lisa Green-Douglass and Green all voiced support for a facility with at least 120 beds.
Kunkel reiterated his position that he would be open to a 120-bed proposal with flexibility for expansion. He said he likely “could not support” a 100-bed jail proposal.
“I need more housing unit options,” Kunkel said. The sheriff’s office sent seven inmates away one day earlier, on Oct. 15, because of their “inability to get along” and a lack of available space to put them and keep them separate, he said.
Kunkel used juveniles as an example that jail staff “continue to struggle with.” He said sheriff’s deputies must frequently clear out one of the jail’s few housing units, capable of holding several inmates, just for a single juvenile offender who is coming for court proceedings.
“There are so many unknowns that also affect our daily population,” Kunkel said. “We can’t do it with 92 beds, we can’t do it with 100 beds and we can’t do it with the small number of housing units we have right now. It won’t work.”
Remington proposes 1-to-1 match for intervention programs
Remington was absent from the Oct. 16 work session, where the board also discussed some specifics about ballot language, but she penned a letter outlining her thoughts to her colleagues shortly before the meeting.
In the letter, Remington proposed a one-to-one match between the price of the jail and other “public safety” and outcome improvement options.
Her estimates hypothesized a $60 million jail proposal, plus $20 million for mobile crisis and behavioral health organizations, $20 million for diversion and reentry programs and $20 million for first responders facilities across the county.
The estimated cost of a jail would put the true total cost of a one-to-one match proposal around $160 million.
“I think the spirit of it is, we’re going to invest in both things,” Fixmer-Oraiz said. “I do agree with that. I do think that people will want to see that we’re (doing) more than just building a jail and a (sheriff’s) office.”
Green expressed concern about the broad allocation of bond money and said he was cognizant of raising property taxes too much because of people on fixed incomes and others who cannot foot a greatly increased property tax bill.
“I don’t disagree with the idea that there could be some other things that could be worked into a jail bond that would be public safety related and good for this community, but I can’t support this,” Sullivan said of Remington’s proposal.
The county and sheriff’s office have been discussing the prospect of a new jail for more than two years at a certain price point, Kunkel said, and he believed a proposal that could effectively double to $160 million while adding $80 million “that we can’t put our finger on” would be difficult for the community to digest.
“This will fail if we’re talking about $160 million, half of it being for things people can’t drive by every day and see,” Kunkel said. “This is a great conversation to have, about what we can do in the future and how we can spend money and show what we’ve been doing.”
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Johnson County appears set to pursue 120-bed jail through $99M bond in 2026
Reporting by Ryan Hansen, Iowa City Press-Citizen / Iowa City Press-Citizen
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