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The Greene County Supervisors took an initial step toward building a new county jail.

At their regular meeting on Monday, the Supervisors approved an ad hoc jail advisory committee consisting of seven individuals, including Sheriff Jack Williams County Attorney Thomas Laehn, County Supervisor Vice Chair Dawn Rudolph, along with Scott Weber Anthony Minnehan, Johnathan Marshall and Tom Heater. The resolution was passed unanimously by the Supervisors, which also pointed out that the current jail is inadequate and the facility has been deemed impossible to hold to the required standards by Iowa Jail Standards due to the structural design.

Supervisor Chair John Muir says by establishing this committee, it is the next step in a process to put together an eventual bond referendum for voters to decide.

“So we thought it was important to get a committee put together of county constituents that have some investment in the whole process and start it moving forward. I think the hope is to have a vote the spring of 2022.”

Sheriff Williams talks about what he would have to do to the current jail, based on comments that have been reported in their annual jail inspection if a bond is not approved next year.

“Then I’m going to have to close the jail temporarily next year to have the floors redone. They want the concrete torn out and replaced, which will be a substantial cost. And then also, I’d probably have to lay employees off for that time period while that’s being done, which is something I really want to avoid. I don’t want to lay anybody off or empty my jail, because just the cost of shipping ten inmates out (of county) for 30 days would probably be in the $25,000-$30,000 range per month.”  

Williams says the jail has been either at or over capacity since he was elected as sheriff in 2018. Additionally, there are still over 100 people waiting to serve jail sentences from criminal convictions and over 100 arrest warrants are still active. He is hoping to build a new jail on the available acres that were purchased along with the new law enforcement center administrative building on East Lincoln Way in Jefferson.