For years, Sarasota County has struggled with a problem it has yet to solve — a jail built for 773 inmates that now holds well over a thousand. Hallways double as sleeping quarters. Inspections flag chronic overcrowding. And every proposed fix has come with a price tag large enough to give taxpayers pause.
The most ambitious plan promised a generational solution — a new criminal justice complex designed to vastly expand capacity and carry the county well into mid-century. Its latest cost estimate: as much as $630 million, to be paid for only if voters agreed to shoulder the debt.
This week, commissioners signaled a shift in direction.
At a meeting Wednesday, they voted to explore a more modest option to demolish just the jail’s west wing and build an eight-story addition in its place. The $401 million project would create 725 beds, lifting operational capacity to 1,237 by 2033.
But by 2042, the jail would be full again.
The pivot captures the bind facing county leaders. According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, steady rise in arrests since 2021, coupled with a doubling of pretrial stays, has pushed the jail population past what the facility was built to handle.
Yet any solution depends on persuading voters to approve hundreds of millions of dollars in new construction — and recent history suggests public appetite for such projects is thin. In May, North Port voters rejected a $115 million referendum for a new police department headquarters, a defeat that now looms over commissioners weighing whether Sarasota residents would support an even larger ask.
Chairman Joe Neunder said he doesn’t know how voters will respond given what happened in North Port, but called the jail issue “one of the bigger things we’ve dealt with this year.”
“What I can tell you,” he said, “is that we absolutely need to do something and we need to have a plan here.”
Until recently, the front-running plans were two versions of a new criminal justice complex. Both would require demolishing the county’s aging Criminal Justice Center on Ringling Boulevard and building a five- or six-story jail on East Avenue. The CJC would be rebuilt at another property near the current jail campus.
The five-story option, estimated at $549 million, would create 823 beds by 2033. The six-story version, projected at $630 million, would stretch capacity even further — enough to keep pace with the county’s growth beyond 2050.
County staff and representatives from the sheriff’s office said they no longer support a six-story version, arguing new population projections show a sixth floor would not be needed.
Sheriff Kurt Hoffman, meanwhile, pressed commissioners to act quickly and urged them to embrace the jail-only plan, calling it a viable option. The jail, he said, is already operating at 115% to 120% of its rated capacity.
“All those other governmental inspections that come into the jail and monitor us are on us for the population situation,” Hoffman said.
Decades of delay leave Sarasota jail fixes costlier and uncertain
Major Brian Meinberg, commander of the courts and corrections division, told commissioners the addition would also be more efficient to run. It would require fewer correctional officers than the larger complex proposals and avoid the expense of transferring inmates elsewhere during construction.
Although the west wing’s official capacity is just 77, Meinberg said it now holds 110 to 115 inmates. The jail-only plan would provide a temporary building to house them while construction is underway. He warned, overcrowding could force the county to ship inmates to other facilities as soon as the end of this year — a cost Hoffman said could grow into the tens of millions of dollars.
The $401 million estimate also includes $27.5 million in maintenance for the current Criminal Justice Center, which houses the Public Defender and State Attorney’s offices, along with other court and sheriff’s functions. All three options call for a $10.9 million expansion of the Ringling Boulevard parking garage. The complex proposals would add another $145 million to replace the CJC altogether.
That makes the jail-only plan about $148 million cheaper than the five-story complex and $229 million less than the six-story version.
Former sheriff and current Commissioner Tom Knight said the problem has been around since before he ran for sheriff in 2008.
“We’ve been talking about it for 20 years,” he said. “It isn’t going away, and this is a commission that’s got to pull the trigger and do something.”
But the longer the county waits, the higher the number climbs. Knight recalled exploring an $80 million option as sheriff. In 2022, another plan carried a $100 million estimate. By 2023, a 300-bed addition was projected at $150 million. That option, if built now, would open with the jail already over capacity, Hoffman said.
Knight said the CJC is “antiquated” and acknowledged the need for replacement. But he questioned whether voters would stomach any option at these prices.
“We’re looking for a cheaper option,” he said, “but we’re not sure the voters will even vote any option.”
Board members advanced all three options but directed staff to return with refined estimates in December. Commissioner Teresa Mast pressed for speed.
“I really want you to sharpen your pencil and expedite this and get it back to us,” Mast said, “because quite frankly we’re behind the gun.”
Capital projects manager Brad Gaubatz described the current figures as “back of the napkin” numbers. Independent consultants will vet more detailed designs before commissioners see them again, and he cautioned that the totals could go up or down.
The schedule is already slipping. A January 2024 memo envisioned community workshops beginning this fall, with ballot language drafted in 2026. Those steps remain undone, leaving the county behind on the timeline to place a referendum on the ballot.
This story was produced by Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit newsroom of the Community News Collaborative serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Learn more at suncoastsearchlight.org.
