Monroe County may spend roughly $2 million to build a new elevator at its aging jail, a project sheriff’s officials say has become necessary because years of debate over a replacement facility have left them relying on a 40-year-old system that is increasingly difficult to maintain.
The proposal is far more extensive than simply replacing the facility’s existing elevator. Documents included in a recent county bond-project packet show the project would involve demolishing a central secure stair tower, constructing a new elevator shaft, extending another stair tower to the fifth floor and building a secured elevated walkway through the jail’s exercise yard.
The proposal appears on a list of potential bond-funded projects county officials are evaluating, though some county officials have questioned whether it makes sense to invest millions of dollars in a building the county may eventually abandon.
Aging elevator becoming increasingly difficult to maintain
The office of Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté says the elevator is increasingly difficult to maintain because many of its key components are no longer manufactured. When major parts fail, they often must be refurbished rather than replaced.
“It’s death by a thousand cuts, basically,” Chief Deputy Phil Parker said.
Richard Crider, the county’s fleet and building manager, said the elevator was out for only a few days this year, but in 2024 and 2025 suffered “several breakdowns, ranging from same-day repairs to multiple consecutive days when a failed component had to be removed, shipped away for rebuilding, and then reinstalled.”
County records show elevator repair costs exceeded $53,000 in 2024 and topped $10,000 in 2025.
Parker said a complete overhaul of the existing elevator could leave it out of service for six to eight weeks, a disruption the sheriff’s office considers unacceptable given the elevator’s importance for daily operations.
“That’s a scary, scary thought because if you go through two to three days of the elevator being down, everybody’s exhausted,” he said.
Parker said the old elevator was problematic when Marté became sheriff in 2023, but he and the rest of the administration delayed elevator replacement in part because they thought the county would have built a new jail by now.
With a new jail still years away, Parker said the sheriff’s office can no longer risk losing the jail’s only elevator.
Jail officials say elevator is critical to daily operations
Jail personnel use the elevator in the five-story facility to transport meals from the kitchen on the fifth floor to the inmates on the fourth floor, move medication carts, take inmates to court proceedings on lower floors and allow staff to respond to emergencies. With about 250 inmates in the facility, Parker said the elevator helps move roughly 750 meals every day.
“When that elevator is down for us, it has a compounding effect on almost every daily operation in that facility,” Parker said.
Angie Purdie, the county commissioners’ administrator, said moving the meal cart via the stairs is a “nightmare,” and while commissioners have purchased a stair climber for the cart, it moves only very slowly.
Parker said even a brief elevator outage creates operational challenges throughout the jail, requiring staff to adjust everything from inmate movement to daily logistics.
The elevator also plays an important role in jail security. When it is unavailable, inmates who normally would be transported between floors by elevator must use stairways, forcing staff to modify some of their normal procedures for moving restrained inmates.
“Any time you’re giving away security protocols, it’s never, ever a good thing,” Parker said.
He said court appearances for disabled inmates likely could be postponed if an elevator outage prevented transport, noting that judges are aware of the jail’s challenges. Medical emergencies present a more pressing concern. If a disabled inmate on an upper floor requires immediate hospital treatment while the elevator is down, deputies and emergency responders may have to navigate the inmate down the stairs, a difficult and potentially risky process.
Parker declined to discuss security-related details of the proposed construction project but acknowledged that creating a new elevator shaft would require giving up existing space inside an already cramped building.
“There is no unused part of that building,” he said. “You’re making a compromise.”
Elevator proposal arrives amid jail overcrowding debate
The proposal comes as county officials continue to grapple with jail overcrowding, aging infrastructure and a recently filed lawsuit alleging unconstitutional conditions at the jail.
Local officials have debated solutions for nearly two decades but still differ about basics, including whether to refurbish and expand the current facility or to build a new one and, if so, where.
The jail is part of the Charlotte T. Zietlow Justice Center, on North College Avenue, which for two consecutive summers has suffered maintenance problems/vandalism that have forced closures and partial evacuations. Council members have expressed skepticism about borrowing money to fix problems in the aging building — though Council member David Henry also said recently that if the county hopes to reuse or sell the building one day, failure to adequately address the building’s problems may make either more difficult.
Parker said, “It was never in the front of our mind that as Sheriff Marté closes out his first term that we’re no closer to a new facility than the day we walked in the door.”
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Exclusive: Aging Monroe County jail may need $2M elevator upgrade
Reporting by Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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By Boris Ladwig, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
